Another Go
by Ao yuki
Summary: Another universe, another perspective. Another way, another Go.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I remember my first contact with Go was when I was about eight years old. I stopped playing when my school stopped offering Go lessons in the Go club. When I was fourteen or fifteen, my friend recommended Hikaru no Go to me. I didn't exactly immediately dive into the game. It was one year later, which is now, that I became almost obsessed with Go. That is the reason why I'm writing a Hikaru no Go fanfic. Hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: A dog as strolling along the road happily; its tail wagging at a blurry speed. Its tongue hung out in a typical doggy way and a constant drip of saliva could be seen. If one wanted to look that is. No one did.

Suddenly pausing, the dog sniffed the air for a few moments before leaping off to the horizon.

It stopped a few seconds later, and began barking incessantly, its tail wagging even faster if that was possible.

An old lady's voice suddenly growled. It seemed to be emitting from somewhere beneath the soil covered in blue snow.

"Shut up! Ao yuki does not own Hikaru no Go! Now cease your mindless barking before you wake up the dead!"

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Chapter 1

"Shinnnndou-sensei!"

A young boy with a head of spiky blue hair made a beeline towards a young man seated in front of a goban. He didn't seem to notice the other patron's amused looks and annoyed gnashing of teeth at their interrupted game. His chubby face was filled the sort of childish glee, innocence and pure excitement that only a child could have.

Shindou Hikaru – the current holder of the title Tengen and fighting for the Gosei title, he was proud to admit – turned around, an equally wide grin on his face.

Almost immediately, he was tackled by the said young boy. He felt the boy's arms wrapped around him tightly. Immediately after that, he was released. The boy seemed to vibrate in excitement. Eyes shining, he exclaimed loudly.

"Shindou-sensei! I won the tournament! I won! I really did! At first, I really thought I'll lose... Cause the opponent was really really strong and he had me totally trapped! I so sad, you know. Cause I couldn't see a way out at all! But then, I remembered that you told to persevere till the end, so I..." The young boy babbled on animatedly, arms waving all around.

Hardly containing the burst of happiness at that announcement, Hikaru suppressed the urge to grab the boy and swing him around in delight. He was supposed to be the mature adult here. Yoshiku was one of his first students. Ever. Among the rest, he also happened to be the one that had the most potential. That wasn't to say that his other students weren't talented. They were. But Yoshiku was just... noticeably talented in a different way.

He reminded him of Sai.

Hikaru smiled genially and gently patted the young boy on his head, when what he really wanted to do was to do a tap dance. He didn't know how to do a tap dance, but hey. It was the thought that counted, right?

"Hey, hey, slow down! That's _great_, Yoshiku-kun! I know how much you wanted to win. I'm sure your parents are very proud of you now."

Beaming a smile that threatened to split his face into half, the young boy named Yoshiku nodded his head fervently. He subsequently broke out dancing wildly in celebration.

Caught up in the moment, Hikaru leaped up from his seiza posture and began to dance with Yoshiku too, twirling him around, laughing happily, and generally ignoring the amused annoyed looks from the other Go players in the Go salon. They didn't manage to do a tap dance, but there were certainly a lot of thumping and thuds.

'A leopard never changes its spots' could be a saying that described Hikaru, except Hikaru would describe himself more of a dinosaur than a leopard. He was aware that unlike most people, he still had the energy of a hyperactive little child. Or chipmunk, as Akari once said. Despite trying his best to be more sedated, Hikaru never quite managed the calm façade that his best friend and rival had, although he could and would match him in the intensity.

The excitement soon died down, and both Hikaru and Yoshiku stopped their insane dance of happiness. Yoshiku's mother arrived at the Go salon to pick up her child, bowing profusely for her child making a fuss in the salon. Finally, Hikaru was left again with an empty goban in front of him.

Hikaru took a glance at his watch. The smile slid off his face almost as fast as it had appeared. Memories of a particular individual came unbidden to his mind – of white ethereal cloth and the snap of a fan. With a heavy heart, he stood up and left the salon. He was vaguely aware of some patron's concerned looks. But he wanted to be left alone, and didn't acknowledge them. Most of them had practically known him since he was a little brat and had seen him grow up and changed into the fine young man that he was now. At least, he thought of himself as a fine young man.

It was a routine. Every time the fifth of May rolled by, he would leave exactly at the same time with a sombre expression, and return the next day with an even more sombre one.

Besides himself, he wagered that no one knew quite what happened on the fifth of May. But no one ever really asked either.

To the rest of the patrons, it was obviously personal and as much as Hikaru was a ball of extremely loud sunshine on most days, he was strangely private person.

So they watched on, as he stepped out from the salon. The sound of thunder rumbled in the distance.

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Rain pelted down like an endless waterfall.

A young man, not really a man and yet could hardly be called a boy, walked silently up the steps leading up to Honinbo Shuusaku's tomb. With each step he took, rainwater splashed against his legs and soaked his pants further. However, he seemed oblivious to his surroundings. The black umbrella he had was useless in face of the torrent of rain. One could scarcely see further than ten metres in front, yet the young man with his bleach bangs was walking with a well practised ease and determination of someone that had walked up the steps many times. From afar, other than the blurry outline of a person holding onto a black umbrella, he was unrecognisable; un-human even. One could almost mistake him for a ghost drifting aimlessly about, given the location.

Finally, he stopped. He had reached his destination.

For a moment, he did nothing but stared at the headstone in front of him. There was sorrow in his eyes, fondness, and regrets. The headstone was nothing more than a grave marker. It was unadorned, and due to the years of standing up to mother nature, showed signs of wear and tear. Hikaru wasn't a poetic person. To him, a stone was a stone. People could carve and decorated it, but it was still a stone.

It bore the name of the greatest Go player that ever lived. But that didn't matter. The person he was looking for wasn't there.

He knew that. He _knew_ with the coldness and clarity of a rational mind that _he_ wasn't there. Hikaru did. But the stone was the closest he could find. It was his routine now. On the same day every year, he always ended up in front of Shuusaku's tomb in Innoshima. The only year he didn't was when he had drunk so much sake that he'd passed out.

And he visited the tomb the next day anyway. It was like a habit that he couldn't ever bear to kick.

He knew that there was a similar headstone in Tokyo, but it didn't give him the same feeling that the one in Innoshima did. Years passed since his mentor's disappearance, and many more things had happened in his absence. But there was no way he could ever forget the one person that had taught him far more that he deserved.

His mentor, Fujiwara no Sai.

"Sai, do you remember the kid I told you about? Yoshiku? Yeah. He won the tournament I signed him up for." Hikaru gave a lop-sided smile at the headstone.

"He came dashing into the Go salon and kept thanking me, babbling about all sorts of things..." At that he trailed off, suddenly remembering something. "Hey... I just remembered... I never got to thank you, did I?" He looked down and shuffled his feet.

It was Sai that made him saw the world in another perspective, through the eyes of Go. It was Sai that gave him a direction in life. And he never even said a single thanks to him.

"Hehe. Without you, Sai, I would probably still be the stupid idiot that I was.'

At that, he scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"Not that I'm really smart now or anything..."

Images flashed across his mind. All the times when Sai would whine at him for a game of Go, the moment when Sai was excitedly waving his hand around at the discovery of Netgo, and the first time that Sai was crying because of his first game against Grandpa. If he had been smarter, he would have understood how Sai felt. Maybe then he wouldn't disappear without a trace.

Unknowingly, his hand was clutching onto something in his pocket. Hikaru slowly took it out.

It was a fan.

Hikaru stared at the fan – the intricate designs, though could be called pretty by some, was lacking in his eyes. He had purchased the paper fan three years back on an impulse and it had stayed with him since. The falseness of machinery work could never replace the handmade one that Sai had. Hikaru clenched both his fist tightly, one hand holding onto the umbrella, the other hand with the fan. Abruptly, he unclenched his fists. With a barely heard 'thud' over the sounds of the downpour, both items fell. Even before it hit the ground, Hikaru knew that the fan was now destroyed.

"Sai..." he whispered, a choked sound at the back of his throat. Water coursed down his cheeks. Was it the rain, or were they tears? He didn't know. Maybe it was a mixture of both.

Annoyed, he tried to swipe them away. What rights did he have to cry over Sai like that? He had wanted Sai to disappear, wished that he had never appeared in his life. He had denied himself the right to mourn over Sai's disappearance the moment he tried to deny Sai's existence.

Regret, guilt, and rage at himself made Hikaru felt the acute sense of loss all over again. It was as if Sai had just left and he still had the hope that he would come back someday. The hope was the part where it hurt most. Go had helped to make some of the pain go away. It was a small area, but it had to be better than nothing. Sai was in his Go, wasn't he? Mentally he knew Sai wasn't coming back. But he still wished he would. Humans were never all that rational.

A sharp pain abruptly shot through his palm. Quickly, he unclenched his fist, only to find that blood had appeared on his palm at the places where his fingernails dug deep into the flesh. Shock filtered across his face before a small frown quickly replaced it.

Hikaru looked up at the headstone again.

"Sai... I don't know if I'll come back next year..." Hikaru said with an uncharacteristic frown. Somehow, he had the feeling that most probably by next year at the exact same time, he would still be standing at that same spot. "I don't think I can take this anymore, you know? I just... I just want to tell you how grateful I am to you. Preferably face to face..." Hikaru shrugged. "But what can I do? Shuusaku-san, if you ever see Sai, please tell him Shindou Hikaru says thank you, ok?"

Carefully, Hikaru allowed himself to kneel down in front of the headstone. With his eyes closed, kowtowed once, wishing that Sai would be happy wherever he may be now. On the second kowtow, he sent a plea for Sai to appear before him again, even if it was for one minute. On the third kowtow, he beseeched for a chance, just a small one, to do everything right again.

He didn't even know who he was praying for anymore. For him to finally be released from his guilt? Or for Sai?

There was a voice at the back of his mind, nagging at him to be careful of what he wished for. That same voice also said with a wise voice that sounded somewhat like Sai that 'talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity'.

As he knew it would, nothing happened.

'Geez, look now what you've done, Sai. I've become a crybaby...' Hikaru shook his head.

Giving a small laugh that was devoid of any joy, Hikaru bowed his head once more, and tried to stand up. He shivered as he stood up, already regretting coming when it was raining so heavily.

He sighed and turned to leave.

Hikaru never saw it coming. As soon as he took a step, the ground started shaking.

"What the...! An earthquake?!"

It started with mild vibrations. But within a few seconds, the trembling got worse. It felt as if the Earth itself had been thrown into a washing machine that was set on high spin. The shaking threw Hikaru's balance off and instinctively he yelped, flailing his arms wildly in an attempt to grab hold of something . However, his arms were numbed from the cold (he really shouldn't have came in the rain), and kneeling always made his legs numb anyway.

Hikaru was tossed forward.

Maybe it was the impending impact, or maybe it was just sheer shock, but things around him seemed to move in slow motion. Seeing the stone marker getting closer and closer, Hikaru groaned about how it was going to hurt and began cursing himself for not wearing a raincoat. Squeezing his eyelids shut, with mere milliseconds to spare before his head connected with the headstone, Hikaru thought he saw his grandpa's attic, floating dust, and a younger version of himself.

Through the headstone.

Right.

Maybe he really should listen to Akira for once and go see a psychiatrist.

His head slammed onto the image in front of him.

And pain immediately seared across his head, as if it was penetrating his very thoughts and invading his soul. He let out a scream. There was pressure between his eyes and his ears. They build up until he thought it couldn't possibly build up any more. Lights, red and blue, flashed by him.

Before he could even register the fact that the pain had yet again increased, he mercifully fainted.

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A/N: That's that I guess. Chapter one's done. The second chapter's finished, but still not beta-ed. It might take a while to get it beta-ed, so prepare for quite a long wait. And before I forget, let us mourn this day, the day that Sai disappeared.

Lastly, Review.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Chapter 2 here.

Disclaimer: All was relatively peaceful. 'Relatively peaceful' because one particular electron, mass being one over one eight six three, was travelling towards a positrons at the daringly insane speed of five centimeters per hour...!

Whizzing through the air, letting out frightened spark of units, the poor electrons screamed out a horrifying truth in its high pitched, squealing voice.

"AO YUKI DOES NOT OWN HIKARU NO GO!"

And so, they collided in a flash of dazzling heat and light.

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Chapter 2

'_..ru...ka..ru...karu!...Hikaru! Wake up, Hikaru!'_

Hikaru thought he heard someone calling his name, telling him to wake up. He didn't particularly want to. He was comfortable enough, thanks, blissfully surrounded by floating clouds. He had absolutely no wish to 'wake up' like what the voice said. Why would he even do something as uncomfortable as that? He's rather be floating together with the pretty clouds…

But something seemed to be nudging incessantly and with great urgency at a corner of his mind... something... that was out of place...

Wait.

Floating clouds?

Was he dead?

He panicked at that thought. Groggily, Hikaru forced his eyes to flutter open.

Blurry shapes hovered inches off his face. They looked like familiar faces. Kinda. But for some reason he couldn't place them. Must be all those clouds. His first thought was 'I'm really hungry' and his second thought was 'Ouch'. Hikaru's head felt as if it had been abused as a baseball, soccer ball and tennis ball all at once. Possibly also a bowling ball. Groaning, he tried squinting his eyes further to see properly, but the lights were just too bright. The moment they touched his sensitive eyes, another wave of pain washed over his mind.

"Who put the Sun in my eyes..." He immediately winced and shut his eyes. Perhaps he should go back to that place with the clouds. At least no one was trying to blind him.

"Nii-chan? Hey, nii-chan, are you okay?"

Nii-chan?

Somewhere to his right, an irritating childish male voice threatened to split his head into half. He was half-tempted to smack the boy, whoever he was, but managed to barely retrain himself.

As his mind slowly cleared up, he realised that he probably knew the boy. His voice had a familiar ring to it. Could it be... Yoshiku?

At that moment, he couldn't quite care if it was the kami standing beside him as long as the person stopped trying to break his mind.

There was a few more 'nii-chan!' before Hikaru got irritated and mumbled fiercely a 'shut up!' before trying to recall what had happened.

Seconds passed. Then minutes. Hikaru couldn't remember a single thing. More minutes passed.

Vaguely, he thought he remembered something about water. A lot of water. Did he drowned? Snapshots began to flash through his mind.

Yes, there was water. Because it was raining. Before landing in whatever place he was in, he had been standing in front of Shuusaku's grave in Innoshima. He had been kneeling down talking, and was just about leave...

Then...

Then what?

Someone knocked him out?

No, there wasn't anyone there. No one living anyway. After he stood up, the ground started moving. He was just about to leave when there was an earthquake.

Right then, it was as if a dam had been broken. His memories flooded back into his mind.

Even mentally experience the scene when his head attempted to break the hard gravestone make him winced. Was it just his luck to have an earthquake happen on the day he decided to visit someone's grave?

Briefly, Hikaru thought about going back to sleep now that he had made sense of everything. Obviously he was in a hospital to recover from his injuries obtained from hitting a gravestone, and one of his annoying student was trying to wake him up from his coma (Had he been in a coma? It certainly felt like it) by squealing into his ears.

But somehow, he thought it would be too cruel to leave the person wondering if he was never going to wake up.

Reluctant to face the bright hospital light, Hikaru opened his eyes slowly.

Mercifully, someone seemed to have dimmed the lights and he didn't get another migraine. His forehead seemed to be throbbing slightly but otherwise he felt fine. Hikaru sighed and sat up gingerly. He felt around the bandaged for the bump. When his fingers made contact with it, he fought hard not to scream.

Oh god. He hoped his brain wasn't more damaged than it already was.

"Nii-chan?"

Hikaru turned irritated to the source of the voice. When he found out which of his student it was, he as going to give him a good talking to. Go players don't squealed. Ever.

He squinted his eyes again. Everything in the room had taken on an odd blurry edge as if the colours were trying to melt into each other. There was a boy standing beside his bed and a vaguely white humanoid shape standing some distance behind him. It didn't make sense. Why did everything look so blurry?

"Yoshiku? Is that you?" Hikaru said, still squinting his eyes.

"Huh...? Who's Yoshiku? I'm Daisuke."

Hikaru tilted his head in puzzlement. He didn't have any student named Daisuke as far as he could recall. But the good news was, things around him seem to come into sharper focus the more time passed, until he could just barely make up the features of the two people around him.

At first, his mind couldn't quite process who he was looking at. Hikaru stared blankly at the boy who called himself Daisuke, and idly wondered about the sort of food they had in hospitals, because he was really getting quite hungry.

Then, Hikaru was confused. The boy looked really familiar, but unfamiliar at the same time.

When he finally registered that he was looking at himself, albeit a younger version of himself, his thoughts screeched to a halt. If he had been standing up, Hikaru was sure that his leg wouldn't have been able to support him. He swayed back and forth on the bed, almost toppling over and giving himself another head injury.

Hikaru continued to stare in shock at the splitting image of his twelve year old self.

And pinched himself.

"Ouch!"

Which brought his eyes to land on his second visitor that, if it were possible, gave him more of a shock. There were many other emotions along with the shock. But shock overrode all the others.

"Sai..!" Hikaru choked out.

His throat closed up and threatened to cut off his air supply. Rubbing his eyes to affirm that he was neither hallucinating nor dreaming, Hikaru's eyes darted between the two people. There was a part of him that told him that he must have gone insane, that the knock on the gravestone must have damaged his brain worse that he'd thought at first.

"You're..." Hikaru swallowed. "I mean... You... I'm..."

His leapt through a flurry of thoughts that hoped from one question to another idea without much pattern or lucidity. He wouldn't have been surprised he he'd been frothing at the mouth. On one hand, there was the younger version of Shindou Hikaru, looking quizzically at him. On the other hand, there was Sai.

Hikaru took a deep breath. One problem at a time. He tore his eyes away from Sai and focused on the younger version of him.

Who as he had just noticed, had darker coloured bangs?

"Nii-chan...? Are you okay? Cause you look really pale... You're not going to faint again, are you?" The boy asked anxiously.

"All right." Hikaru said out loud, trying to reassure himself. "I mean. I'm all right. Ok. Really fine. Good. So..." Hikaru stuttered a little. God. It was so weird to be talking to himself. A younger version of himself. Daisuke. Right.

"Right. Daisuke right?"

The boy looked at Hikaru strangely, as if he'd sprouted another head. Then his eyes widened.

"Did you lose your memories or something?"

Before Hikaru could think up of an appropriate response, he whirled around to face Sai.

"You!" He pointed at Sai accusingly. "It's all your fault! _You_ made Hikaru lose his memories! Unless you get it back for him, I'm not going to let you play Go!"

Sai gasped and almost immediately, started wailing.

"Ehhh...!? But... but... I don't know how!"

Sai covered his face using his sleeves, and proceeded to sob.

"I am so sorry, Hikaru-san! I didn't mean to make you lose your memories..."

Hikaru startled. Sai had never called him Hikaru-san before. At that point, he really didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He had Sai back. But... he wasn't really the Sai that he knew, was he? Hikaru looked down at his hands, leaving Daisuke, his brother it seemed like, to continue to chastise Sai.

If Daisuke was the younger version of him... then who was he, Shindou Hikaru? It didn't make much sense. Daisuke had called him Hikaru. So... had he time travelled back somehow?

Carefully, Hikaru inspected himself. He clenched and unclenched his fist, and looked at all his limbs. He was definitely smaller and shorter. How old was he? Hazy memories surfaced, providing him with a form of answer. He had been eleven years old when he first met Sai. Maybe he was eleven years old now?

Hikaru looked around him helplessly. He looked at Daisuke, and then at Sai. He didn't really know what to do in the situation. It was all quite confusing. Outside of Go, he really wasn't a thinking and planning type of person.

"Eh... Dai... suke?" Hikaru ventured.

Daisuke continued to rant away at Hikaru's mental state, as if in his own world.

"Daisuke! Sai!" Hikaru shouted.

Sai stopped wailing and Daisuke turned to look at him.

Now that he had their attention, he wasn't really sure what he wanted to say.

"How long had I been out for?" He motioned his hands to indicate the hospital ward. "What happened? And why is... Sai here?"

Daisuke shook his head.

"You've been out for the longest time! I think it's almost a whole day. Don't you remember what happened? Mom has been being angry and worried the _whole_ time. I think when she comes back she's either going to hug you or kill you."

"It's not my fault!" Hikaru protested. "You think I like to hit my head? And you still haven't told me about Sai yet!" The words spilled out from his mouth easily.

Daisuke rolled his eyes.

"He's a ghost. From the goban you wanted to steal from grandpa's attic, remember?" He furrowed his eyebrows together. "He just appeared in front of us suddenly. I asked mom if she could see him... But she can't and now she thinks I'm imagining things. I thought at first maybe I was hallucinating. But then since you can see him he has to be real right?"

Daisuke's story seemed to be similar to how he actually met Sai, except...

"What about Akari?"

"She was frantic too! And she couldn't see Sai either. Or she would have said something."

Hikaru frowned.

Apparently, Hikaru didn't just time travelled back. Daisuke being his brother, twin brother from the looks of it, should have given it away. And now, Akari was not the one who had accompanied him to the attic.

Temporarily pushing the matter about Akari to the back of his mind, Hikaru's eyes landed on the other occupant of the room again. He couldn't ignore Sai any longer.

"Sai...?"

The ghost fixed his eyes on Hikaru and Hikaru swallowed. He had forgotten how intense Sai's attention could be.

"Sai... I... I mean. Hello." Hikaru finished lamely.

Gracefully, Sai bowed.

"Hello. I'm Fugiwara no Sai, the Go tutor of Emperor Seiwa in the Heian period. You are?"

From the bed, Hikaru bowed too, closing his eyes and forcing back the memories that threatened to overwhelm him.

"I'm Shindou Hikaru. Nice to meet you..."

Mentally, he added the word 'again'.

"Nice to meet you too, Hikaru-san."

There, with the '-san' again.

When Hikaru was younger, there were times when he had wondered how it would felt like to have a sibling of some sort. He knew siblings fought all the time and never did seem to got along well, judging by the number of complaints his classmates had about their siblings. But he'd thought that at least they had someone to fight with. And then he wouldn't be as bored at home. His parents never controlled what he did at home, but there were only so many things one could do alone.

Then Sai appeared, and he had never been quite as bored since. Sai introduced Go to him. Through Go, he met Akira, Tsutsui, Kaga, Waya, Fukui, and many other people. Go was something that they all had in common, and friendships developed from there. All the while, Sai continued to be his mentor, teacher, and friend.

He had never got over the fact that Sai just disappeared. Because somewhere in his heart, he never stopped blaming himself for it.

"Nii-chan? I'll go call the doctor now ok?"

Before Hikaru could reply, Daisuke had dashed off, leaving Sai and him alone. Even Sai looked taken aback at the speed which Daisuke ran.

"Erm..." Sai started. "Do you play Go, Hikaru-san?"

Hikaru nodded. "Yeah..." He hesitated for a while, before adding. "You can call me Hikaru, you know."

Sai smiled.

"All right, Hikaru. How long have you played Go for?"

At that, Hikaru paused. How long? Technically he had never played Go before, but in actuality many years.

Hikaru was just about to reply, when the door opened and there was the sound of a loud thud.

"Hikaru!

His mother rushed forward and embraced him, smoothing his hair over and over again.

"Thank kami you're all right..."

Even if everything else didn't convince Hikaru that he was no longer in his own world or time, then the appearance of his mother did.

His mother had died several years ago.

While his younger self would have squirmed and protested at being hugged, Hikaru wasn't that young boy who took everything and everyone for granted. Hikaru hugged back just as hard, if not harder, than his mother.

"Don't make me worry like that, Hikaru... I nearly had a heart attack when your grandfather called and told me you were sent to the hospital! I thought something really bad had happened..."

Hikaru didn't say anything. He just continued to hug his mother.

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Daisuke managed to get the doctor faster than expected. The doctor announced that Hikaru was allowed to be discharged, but ought to go back to the hospital for check-ups just in case the bump on his head was worse than it looked like. From then on, things proceeded at a pace that defied logic. Within the span of three hours, Hikaru, Diasuke, and Sai were all in a taxi. Hikaru's mother sat at the front of the taxi.

The whole journey had been strange. Hikaru paid minimal attention to his surroundings, directing it inwards instead. Daisuke fell asleep almost the moment they sat down. He seemed worn out. At first Sai made a few comments about the scenery. But then he soon fell silent when he realised that Hikaru didn't really want to talk at that moment.

Hikaru had a lot to think about.

He never thought that ghosts existed. But Sai's appearance negated that argument. There had been a period of time that he thought he was crazy but even if he was, Hikaru sincerely doubted he had the imagination to come up with Go-ghosts from the Heian period. He didn't even like history all that much.

But now, he was presented with an even more bizarre situation than a ghost. He was Shindou Hikaru but not really the Shindou Hikaru at the same time. All of a sudden he had a brother, Sai was back, and so was his mother.

Hikaru ran a hand through his hair tiredly. He didn't really know what to make of all of it. Maybe the earthquake that sent him to the hospital had something to do with it. It didn't really make much sense. He had never heard of earthquakes sending people back in time or to another universe. But then again, what did he know about earthquakes? He despised geography as much as history.

With more questions than answers and answers that gave him more questions, Hikaru gave a sigh. What was the use of school if it didn't prepare him for emergencies like this? What could he do?

Yet when he saw the three people in the taxi with him, he couldn't help but wonder if kami was giving him a chance. A chance to do things in a... different way. Even if he had to experience growing up all over again.

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It was soon that the Sun set and the skies grew progressively darker. Rain followed. Hikaru had been taken aback by the realisation that he would be sharing a room with Daisuke. He wondered if having two human and one ghost living in the same room was going to be a bit of a squeeze. Not that Sai took up much space. Or any space at all. He was just uncomfortable with the idea of sharing a room. He wouldn't be able to blast his music out loud any more...

Surprisingly, his bed felt very familiar. The moment he laid down on it, his mind started emptying itself of all thoughts and prepared itself for sleep. He watched the rain splattering on the window. Abruptly, there was a flash of lightning, soon accompanied by a clap of thunder. Hikaru snuggled under his blanket.

He had been on the verge of falling asleep, the point of time between dreams and reality, when he felt someone climbing onto his bed.

Annoyed, he looked back to see Daisuke's back facing him.

There was another clap of thunder, and even his back disappeared under a blanket that seemed to have come from nowhere.

Had he been more awake, Hikaru might have pointed out that they were in the house and there was no way the thunder could hurt them. Or maybe he would have kicked Daisuke off his bed. If it wasn't for the fact that he was eleven years old again, there was no way both of them could sleep on the same bed without kicking or punching each other.

But Hikaru was really tired, and frankly he couldn't be bothered.

So he turned back again, and fell asleep.

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A/N: Well... that's chapter 2 for you. For some reason, I can't say I'm entirely happy with this chapter though. Opinions?


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thanks people, for the great responses in chapter 2! Here's chapter 3 for you!

Disclaimer: Silently fluttering in the cold desert of Siberia, the butterfly struggled to stay up in the air. Yet the cold was slowly but surely sinking deeper and deeper into her wings, freezing her entire being.

From England, it flew across oceans and lands. It continued to flutter on, for it carries a huge responsibility. She must fulfill the last wish of her kind. Even though all she wanted to do was to lie down on the snow and let the cold take her, she would not give up, for she was so close to her goal... so close...

Finally reaching her destination, the butterfly drifted down, too tired to move. The wind easily picked her up and drifted the last Monarch butterfly to the pulse of the sleeping land.

Finally her last words, carried by the wind, echoed throughout centuries.

"Ao Yuki does not own Hikaru no Go."

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After the series of shocks the previous day, Hikaru was unprepared to face more; other than the fact that he had forgotten all about school. He was scandalized to remember that he was still a measly student at eleven years old and therefore he had to go to school. And that meant that he had to wake up early. He had to wear uniform, he had to remember to greet all the sempai as sempai, and worse of all, attend all the boring lessons. All over again.

Under his breath, Hikaru said some really colourful words.

Yawning for the umpteenth times, Hikaru allowed his legs to take on a mind of their own while he did his best to keep awake on the way to school. Daisuke on the other hand, had boundless energy and was determined to convince Sai about something. Like how takoyaki was the best food in the world. Sai just seemed generally confused. Absentmindedly, Hikaru listened in to their one-sided conversation, feeling his bed and blanket calling to him. He had surprisingly adapted quite well to the fact that he now had a twin brother.

"Sai, why do you like Go so much?"

Through their now three-way link, Hikaru felt the changes in Sai's mood. A pang went through his heart, and he felt vaguely nauseas. Daisuke too, didn't look too well. Both had stopped walking.

Sai closed his eyes and bowed his head.

"I am not sure if I can ever explain to you..." Sai said softly. "Go... Go is my life. Tell me, Daisuke and Hikaru... Do you have something that you live for?"

Hikaru felt less nauseas as the seconds passed. He frowned and shook his head slightly. He did. Go was his life. But it would be strange for this version of him to say that, would it? Daisuke shrugged.

Sai looked straight at them.

"Then do you have something that you will die for?"

Hikaru was startled. He wasn't given a chance to think about it as Sai continued.

"I do. And that is Go. Go gave brought me all my happiness. And... as it turns out, brought my me death too."

"And yet still, I would never have wished for anything else. I have never been happier than when I was teaching Go to Emperor Seiwa. Every day I played Go. But I never got bored. There are just so many ways a game could have gone and so many different opponents to face. Go is a meeting of minds. Your every emotion, your every thought, affects the game. A game can reveal your personality and your desires. It is fascinating to me. At that point in time, besides me there was another Go tutor. One day, he suggested to the emperor..."

"_Only one instructor is needed. Why don't we play and the winner can remain?"_

At that, Hikaru swallowed. He knew what happened next, but he was mesmerized by the tale unfolding before his eye. Maybe Sai could be a storyteller in his next life.

"You played Go with him then? Who won?" Daisuke asked quietly.

May it was his imagination, but Sai's eyes seemed to take on a darker hue.

"At first, the game was even. Both of us were equally matched. But then… I saw it. Even with everyone watching the game, somehow I was the only one who saw it. A white stone had been mixed into his goban. It rarely happens... but sometimes, your stones get mixed up with your opponent's. Of course, that has nothing to do with the match and usually the person would just hand it over..."

Sai stared at his hands.

"But he... he waited for the right moment and added it to his captured stones."

"He cheated!" Daisuke burst with indignation and scowled.

Sai nodded.

"Yes… yes he did. And I was… I was so angry. But when I was about to raise my voice... he turned around accused me of cheating instead. I denied, of course. But we had to continue the game, because the Emperor declared that he refused to believe that something so disgracefulhad happened in his presence. I... I was unravelled. I lost because I couldn't concentrate after his accusation. The emperor branded me as a cheater. I was exiled, and ordered never to touch Go again."

"But…Go is what I lived for. It's my life. What was the point in a life without what I lived for? I walked for two days straight without rest, until I reached a river. I remember the name of the river... Kohaku. I... I am not sure what came over me. There comes a point in time when there isn't anything to hold you anymore and you give up. I gave up. I jumped into the river. When I came to my senses again, it was too late. The river was unforgiving. I couldn't get myself out even if I wanted to. But I couldn't let go. I wanted to play more Go! It wasn't fair! It wasn't. Why did I have to leave just when I discovered Go? And somehow, kami heard my wishes. My spirit attached to a goban, watching and waiting and waiting for something to come along..."

Hikaru had a bitter taste in his mouth. Sai had come to the part in the story which he always hated the most. Torajirou. Honinbou Shusaku. Compared to him, Hikaru forever felt guilty. He was a jerk to Sai, confining his brilliance and talent to his room and never letting him play as much as he wanted to. He wished he had Torajirou's insight to see Sai's ability and let him played more.

"So I was given another chance. Torajirou found me. He was very interested in Go and took me on willingly and I was able to play as much Go as I wanted. Torajirou was a very good player and would have become a great Go player... But luck was not with us. He died at the young age of thirty four."

"Since then, I've stayed in the goban, waiting. I lived for Go and died for Go, Hikaru and Daisuke. Go is everything I ever had and everything I ever will. The reason why I am here is because of Go. And I think if I ever stopped loving Go, I wouldn't be here anymore. Can you understand now why I love Go?" Sai asked.

Daisuke was silent.

And Hikaru was silent too. He never thought of it that way before, but it seemed sad to him somehow. Living and dying for a game, and then having that same game take over your entire existence such that if you ever stopped loving the game, you would disappear.

It must have been terrifying. What if he got bored with the game? Or found something else more important than Go? Would he 'die' again? Those must have been Sai's thoughts at one point in time.

Was that why Sai disappeared in the first place? That he found something other than Go?

Hikaru shook his head. It couldn't be. Sai and Go were synonymous with each other. How could Sai ever abandon Go?

Hikaru spoke up with Sai and Daisuke. He made a promise to himself and to Sai.

"Don't worry Sai. Daisuke and I will let you play Go as much as we can, right Daisuke?"

Daisuke piped up.

"Yep! We will!"

Tears welled up further in his eyes, threatening to spill over. Sai hugged the both of them with all his strength, enthusiastically exclaiming his happiness. That soon ended when Daisuke pointed out that they were going to be late with his face slightly blue as his air supply had been abruptly cut off. It was strange having a ghost that felt as physical as the next human being hugged you. But then again, Hikaru recently had stranger things happen to him.

Like travelling six years back into a parallel universe for example. He was still trying to figure that out.

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Thankfully because they left home somewhat earlier than usual, they arrived on time.

To Hikaru, school was as boring as much his murky memories had informed him. The mundane lessons, the droning voices of the teachers mixing up all the facts like a giant washing machine... Time was interminable, with the hands of the clock moving ever agonizingly slowly.

When Hikaru had become a Go profession at grade six, he had cheerfully left the classroom, assuming that he would never _ever_ have to step back into in ever again. Now, seated back at the hard plastic chair with a hard plastic table in front of him again, it only goes to show that one must never assume anything.

Staring blankly at the blackboard, Hikaru suddenly remembered one of his reasons for becoming a Go pro at such a young age.

School was torture.

With a sigh, Hikaru rested his head on the table, his eyes drifting throughout the classroom. Despite the strangeness of seeing all his classmates being a kid again, he quickly got used to it. They still acted the same way, more or less.

The window at the side of the classroom suddenly appeared very tempting. If the lesson went on any further, Hikaru thought he might just take up on its invitation and jump right out of it.

Images of the sort of horrified expression on his teacher's face played behind his eyelid. When all of a sudden, he felt a small round hard object connect solidly with the back of his head, successfully jolting him to full consciousness and disrupting said images.

Now fully awake, Hikaru looked behind him in annoyance. Daisuke had been the one to deny him the human right to fall asleep. Didn't he know that sleep was very important? That if you didn't fet enough, you could die?

Grinning wide at Hikaru, Daisuke just mouthed the words 'don't fall asleep'. Hikaru growled irritably and turned his head to face the teacher again, trying _really_ hard to focus. Certainly by theory, an eighteen year old shouldn't fail six grade right...?

No more than five seconds later, Hikaru could feel his mind start drifting once again. Why did he have to learn all these stuff anyway? It wasn't as if the minister of something did whatever that caused whichever was even alive now. Surely the repercussions of his actions have stopped?

Fortunately (or unfortunately, whichever way you want to take it), Hikaru's drifting mind managed to catch the last few words of the teacher announcing one very unwanted piece of news.

"...poorly on their social studies test. So, we will have another test tomorrow."

Loud groans of distress were emitted from almost every student's mouth. Some complained about the total unfairness of life, some the usual teenage angst, some letting out wails of despair as if they had been told that the world was ending. Looks of utter dismay could also be clearly seen on all students' faces. No sane student liked tests, especially on the one subject that they had been told they did poorly on.

Scratch that. No sane students liked any sort of tests. Those that did had their minds twisted far along enough that they were could arguably be called 'insane'.

Hikaru groaned together with the rest of the students, convinced that the world was really going crazy. He lifted his head off the table unwillingly and gave an exaggerated sigh of hopelessness. How was he was expected to remember something he learned years ago _in another _universe was beyond his imagination.

The bell finally rang for break.

"Ne, nii-chan..."

Startled at the voice, Hikaru nearly fell off his chair.

They were currently in the cafeteria. While they usually ate in the classroom, Hikaru felt like exploring the school more and dragged Daisuke with him. Hikaru alternated between flipping through the social studies textbook to prepare for the test the next day, and staring at Sai and wondering if he could skip lessons and just go play a game of Go with him. Although, where exactly was he going to get a goban is a problem…

"Yeah, Diasuke?" Hikaru replied.

"Grandpa has a Go board right?"

"Oh yeah!" His eyes had just been thinking about that.

"Then do you want to go to grandpa's house after school and let Sai play Go?"

Hearing Sai's excited gasp, Hikaru smiled. He nodded with a grin.

"Definitely!"

He was going to play Go. With Sai.

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"Oh Hikaru! Are you feeling better now? It was sure a shock... Daisuke running down, saying you collapsed. I got so worried..."

"I'm fine!" "He's fine!"

Hikaru blinked.

Seeing his grandfather moving around without a wheelchair was odd, but not as odd as having someone with almost the same voice echoed the words you say at the same time.

Heihachi Shindou chuckled lightly and shook his head in affection.

"You two always do everything together. So what brought both of you here? Grandma went shopping."

Hikaru could help but smirked in a way that he thought probably looked quite evil.

"Well grandpa, Daisuke and I learned Go. I was thinking that if we beat you, will you give us the Go board in the attic?"

An expression of pleasant surprise was shown on his face, wondering if he heard wrongly, before a wide grin appeared, his eyes sparkling with excitement.

"Go?! Really? You two actually learned how to play?"

Quickly, much faster than any old man should have been able to, he dashed through the door to get the goban, thoroughly energized at the prospect of a game or two of Go with his two favourite grandsons.

"Now, you two better don't run away!"

Hikaru, with some self-control, managed to control his evil grin this time. There was something to be said knowing something that nobody else knew.

He was Shindou Hikaru, holder of the Tengen title and a strong contender for the Gosei title. His poor grandpa.

People could accuse Hikaru of many things, but a lack of confidence in Go wasn't one.

He watched on in a silence as Daisuke called their mother to notify her that they were in their grandfather's house. Sai looked in curiosity at the strange contraption widely known as a phone. Hikaru's mind wondered at the opportunity given to him by sending him back in time to the first time he met Sai. There were countless things that he could have done better... and now, he was given the chance to do so.

The endless possibilities seemed like the placement of Go stones on a board to Hikaru. If one could open up his or her mind, Go is a board game that could as easily confuse your opponents as easily as it confused you. There were no standard procedures, no method which one absolutely must follow. It was just like his current situation.

Could he prevent Sai's disappearance?

There was no doubt at all in his mind that Sai was good for the Go world; his sheer brilliance had been the kick in the Go world that it needed to get more people to notice the game.

He was glad to see Sai. Overjoyed even. As would the Go world as soon as they could meet him.

Hikaru had once lamented that he didn't let Sai play more games.

But now he didn't have to.

Hikaru did not want any more regrets. This time, Hikaru was determined to try and do things better this time round. And how he was going to do that?

Through Go of course. Internet and otherwise.

However, he was faced with the dilemma of his Go versus Sai's go. He wanted to play Go, damn it. He'd had the chance to play Go uninterrupted for three whole years and he enjoyed every little bit of it. Despite his guilt. Despite the regret. He didn't want to and couldn't just sit back and let Sai take over all the time. He knew he was being selfish. Watching Sai and feeling his anticipation of finally getting to play Go again after so many years, Hikaru felt torn.

When it was time to face his grandpa, should he place the stones for Sai?

He didn't think that he could do that. Not all the time. After Sai left, he was as obsessed with Go as Sai was. To let every game play under his fingertips but yet not his would drive him crazy.

But Hikaru didn't think he could stand seeing Sai fade away again. Sai's presence and strangely enough, Daisuke's presence as well, filled up some void of loneliness he always had after he left.

Hikaru was broken out of his reverie when Daisuke shook him.

"Nii-chan, you go first!"

He blinked several times, trying to clear the cobwebs of thoughts from his mind. While he had been immersed in his thoughts, it seemed like his grandfather had already set up the Goban.

Hikaru moved as if to take his place opposite his grandpa. However at the last minute, he turned around and looked at Daisuke.

Wait a minute.

He didn't have to have a dilemma. There was Daisuke.

The universe had apparently, given him the solution to his problem.

"You go first, Daisuke."

Hikaru pushed a puzzled Daisuke towards the tatami mat and stood up, doing several stretching exercises.

"I need to stretch my legs a little first so you can play, Daisuke. I'll play after you." He grinned.

"Scared, Hikaru? Don't worry! Grandpa will go easy on you!" Hikaru's grandfather reassured.

Hikaru stuck his tongue out.

While he wasn't going to deny Sai the chance to play, he wasn't going to give up Go as well. Daisuke could hold stones for Sai and he could play on his own.

Perfect.

While watching Sai take his place behind Daisuke to direct where to place the stone, Hikaru silently contemplated the ethereal form in front of him. He hadn't played with Sai for a while now. While Sai had been stagnant in the Go board, he had changed and gotten a lot stronger.

Was it possible that he was as strong at Sai now? Even a little bit? Perhaps even beat him?

At that, Hikaru shook his head and snorted.

Nope. If he couldn't beat that creepy Ogata guy back in his own universe, he doubted his ability to actually beat Sai. Even if he played for another hundred years. No wait, scratch that...

Hikaru frowned.

He definitely couldn't beat Sai even if I played for a hundred years. It wasn't a matter of a lack of experience. It was just pure fact.

This time Hikaru's thoughts were broken when he felt both intense happiness and sadness travelling down his mental link with Sai. So much so that for a moment, he felt slightly dizzy. Thankfully, it was only temporary, or he just might fall down and hit his head again...

Without even glancing at him, Hikaru knew that Sai was crying. For kami know how many years he had been trapped a single place, forced to only dream about his only reason for existence. Hikaru was surprised that Sai hadn't gone insane. Hikaru knew that if he was him, he would have.

Sai was crying. He felt relieved that he was no longer merely dreaming. Someone really did wake him up from the goban, and that he was finally going to play Go again. He felt happy that he had more than one person who could see him this time. He felt sad, that the last time he was facing a goban, Torajirou was on the opposite, his blood soaking into it and life leaving him with every moment.

Hikaru whispered teasingly.

"Hey Sai. I know grandpa is strong, but you don't have to be so afraid of him that you're crying, you know."

Taking in a deep breath (vaguely, Hikaru wondered how ghost could breath), Sai smiled.

"All right, Hikaru! I'll try my best to beat grandpa!" he exclaimed.

Daisuke looked back for a while, and raised an eyebrow at the tear streaks on his face. He shook his head and turned back.

"Let's play, Grandpa."

And for a moment, Hikaru felt a pang in his chest.

Because Sai and Daisuke had said the same thing at the same time, and the two of them looked exactly as how he had imagined Torajirou and Sai would have looked all those years back, a ghostly hand guiding the stones on the board.

He blinked and frowned.

The game began.

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The only word to describe the game was 'short' and 'brutal'.

Wait that was two words.

The only two words to describe the game were 'short' and 'brutal'.

Hikaru had been slightly surprised that Daisuke seemed to already know the basics of Go. It quickly faded away to pure amazement as Sai and his grandpa fought a one one-sided battle. No matter what his grandpa did, Sai ruthlessly pressed on. His grandpa was wholly unwilling to admit defeat so early in the game - and to a six grader at that - continued on. Despite Sai's old playing style, it seemed that his strength was still as incomparable as ever.

Every time his grandpa made a move, Hikaru winced in sympathy. If Hikaru didn't already know that Sai was a ghost with a thousand years of experience under his belt, he would have been utterly terrified at his strength. As such, it only further confirmed Hikaru's previous thoughts that he definitely couldn't beat Sai.

Hikaru sighed.

The game ended barely twenty minutes later, clearly in Sai's favour. No one had the heart to really count how many moku his grandpa lost by.

Sai seemed rather embarrassed.

"I'm so sorry, Shindou-san. I got caught up in the game and everything… I'm sorry…" He apologised to an incredulous grandfather.

Unconvinced by the results and convinced that it must have been a fluke, his grandpa demanded to play anther match with Daisuke, while Daisuke adamantly refused.

"No way! It's nii-chan's turn! You said you'll give us the Go board in the attic if nii-chan and I beat you, so play with nii-chan now."

Defeated and annoyed that he had been cheated (in his opinion anyway), his grandpa agreed but only if he got to play Daisuke again later. Daisuke scowled, but agreed nonetheless.

"Fine. Only one more game though. Nii-chan is going to teach me how to play Rock Man DASH when we get back home."

Hikaru watched the exchange in amusement, and then sat down.

He hesitated for a while, before clearing his throat and said out loud.

"I'll be playing on my own, Grandpa."

Hikaru could feel Sai surprise at his announcement. Daisuke was still scowling at the fact that he had been denied more time to play Rock Man DASH, and his grandpa just blinked at his strange announcement.

"What? Of course you are."

"You know how to play Go too, Hikaru?" Hikaru could hear Sai's mounting excitement. "You'll play Go with me later too?'

Hikaru gave a small smile, inclining his head slightly to indicate his agreement.

"Okay, old man! I'm so going to beat you!" Hikaru gave a feral smile.

"Wha..? You said you hated Go just a few months ago, Hikaru! I'm the city Go tournament champion. There's no way that you can beat me even if you somehow managed to pick up the game." he said incredulously.

"Well, we'll see, won't we old man?!'" Hikaru retorted, thoroughly enjoying reeling his grandpa up.

And so after arguing about whether they should nigiri or not, Hikaru just randomly grabbed a go-ke and demanded.

"Come on then, let's just start!"

The game started with Hikaru playing black.

And as if a switch had been thrown, Hikaru's facial expression changed, his mind immediately shut off all outside interference. There was nothing around him except for the goban in front, and the presence of each and every go stones. Black, white, black, white… He threw all his focus into reading ahead the game. Every stone, every move counted. Laying traps, defending, attacking, connecting...

He didn't see the growing look of utter disbelief on his grandfather's face. He didn't see the strange glint in Sai's eyes as he continued placing down the stones.

He didn't even notice when Daisuke left to answer the phone and get a glass of water.

Very soon, the game ended when his grandfather admitting his loss in a faraway and small voice.

Hikaru saw that his grandpa's face was whiter than usual. Concerned for his grandpa's health (he was pretty old after all), Hikaru waved a hand in front of his grandpa's stunned face.

"Hey! Are you okay?"

Hikaru's waving seemed to have done the trick because his grandpa merely stared at both his grandsons some more, before shaking his head.

"Unbelievable..."

"Hey, grandpa! You said you'll give us the goban, remember? Since nii-chan beat you already, can we take the goban then go home?" Daisuke asked hopefully.

"Wha..? Oh right! The goban in the attic. It's said to be haunted you know... why don't you get this goban instead?" he persuaded, seemingly having forgotten that he wanted to play Daisuke again. Daisuke didn't seem inclined to remind him either.

At the word 'haunted', the Shindou twins instinctively glanced at Sai, who was currently looking curiously at the bookshelves.

"No, no. You said we'll have _that_ goban. And we want that goban, right, nii-chan?" Daisuke added.

Hikaru nodded his head vigorously and added in his piece.

"You should honor your promise to your grandsons, old man!"

Heihachi Shindou's shoulders slumped and he sighed in defeat.

"All right all right... I'll bring the goban here since you two want it so much. But don't tell me I didn't warn you if some strange white ghost that loves to play Go jumps out at you..." he grumbled as he left the room.

Hikaru held his laughter in until his grandpa closed the door, then let it all out. Daisuke too, dissolved into peals of laughter as he looked at Sai.

Only Sai seemed to be left in the dark.

With a confused expression on his face, Sai just asked.

"What is so funny?"

Somehow, it only sent the Shindou twins laughing more.

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A/N: Wow, I didn't end off in a cliffhanger? I guess I ought to add another disclaimer here. I don't own Rock Man DASH, capcom does.

For a couple of days, I had this humongous writer's block, my laptop had been throwing tantrums, my homework went missing, etc. You get it; I was absolutely not pleased at all. Consider this chapter a gift by unknown forces of the world because my computer has mysteriously been fixed, my writer's block cleared, my homework appearing in places I swore I checked already.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: People, throw your comments at me. I'm looking to improve my writing here.

Disclaimer: Rain poured down upon the lands of Abramire, sending its citizens scattering off for shelter.

All were running for shelter, that is, all except for one petite girl who was sitting on the fence, cheerfully swinging her legs to and fro. As the rain drenched her whole body, the girl merely giggled happily. She hopped down from the fence and twirled herself around.

"Ao Yuki does not own Hikaru no Go!" she shouted to the heavens as she continued her ludicrous dance.

Thunder roared once, as if in total agreement.

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Chapter 4

The Sun tipped precariously on the horizon. A comforting red amber glow filled up the entire room. It was indeed a sight for sore eyes.

Too bad none of the room's inhabitants had the energy to enjoy the poetic feeling.

By the time Hikaru and Daisuke lugged the entire Go set home, they were exhausted. To their twelve - year old bodies, even the go-ke itself, filled with stones, was too heavy to carry... at least for long distances.

Their mother had mildly chided them both for tiring themselves out and seemed to especially blame Hikaru for that but actually seemed more worried than anything. Distracted by Sai pleading to have a game right then, Hikaru only half-heartedly promised to take better care of Daisuke. Daisuke, on the other hand, tried his best to help Hikaru by saying that he was 'fine really' and 'a bit of exercise is good'.

Finally making back to their room, Hikaru sat heavily onto his bed.

"Oh... that was so tiring..."

This time, even Daisuke agreed with him for the moment he arrived in the room, the usually energetic boy crumpled onto his bed, seemingly dead to the world.

Hikaru threw a look of envy at Daisuke. If only he could just lie down on his bed and go to sleep...

"Hikaruuuuu... You said you'll play a game with me now!' Sai whined while Hikaru yawned. He looked rather affronted that Hikaru didn't immediately start playing in the middle of the road on their way home.

Hikaru merely gave another huge yawn.

Seeing that Hikaru was ignoring him, Sai started shaking Hikaru, chanting 'now! now!' continuously.

"All right! All right! I didn't say I wasn't going to play you so stop shaking me!" Hikaru grumbled.

The only reply was Sai's over-excited squeals of joy.

"I'll set up the goban now…"

After getting an old washing cloth from his mother to wipe away the dust coated on top of the goban, it wasn't long before the goban was placed nicely in the middle of the room, the go-ke on either side of it. The blood was a little unsettling, however. Even if seeing it meant seeing Sai.

Despite his slight annoyance and sleepiness, Hikaru was otherwise excited to play a game with Sai. There was a sense of anxiousness to compare and see how he matched up against Sai. There was delight at the thought that after so many years of waiting, he was finally going to play _Sai_. His mentor, the person at inspired him.

He smiled wistfully. There was also a twinge of sadness. This Sai wasn't _his_ Sai exactly; he wasn't the Sai that accompanied him through thick and thin, the Sai that he knew for nearly three whole years, and the Sai that he had shared so much of his memories with.

But Sai was still Sai, he supposed. And Hikaru couldn't be happier that he had another chance to know this world's Sai.

"Okay, Sai! Daisuke already told you about the Komi rule right? That the white will get 5.5 points as compensation?

Sai nodded.

"Hai. Although in my time, there wasn't such a thing…."

Hikaru placed the go-ke beside him. Right hand for black, and left hand for white.

"You just use your fan to point at the board, Sai. Even or odds?"

Sai contemplated for a moment.

"Even."

The number of Go stones turned out to be odd. With a piercing 'pachi!' resounding off the goban, the game began.

First hand, the lower right kosumi.

With every move made, Hikaru's heart felt as if it skipped a beat. His left hand was firm and sure, while his right trembled. Every time it was his turn, Hikaru's mind raced forward a thousand miles.

'Here, to surround…..'

And Hikaru removed two white stone from the board. He couldn't make a mistake now. Not now.

The Sun had long set, and the room grew darker with the passing of every minute. Yet the two occupants in the room noticed none of it, engrossed in the game that had changed both their lives. Sai would point with his fan once, and Hikaru would put the stone upon the goban with his left hand. He predicted the probability of Sai's next move, and then swiftly made his own to cut off the stones on the upper right area. Tension mounted higher and higher with each reverberating 'pachi!'. Hikaru vaguely felt the sweat that lined his forehead.

The two opponents skilfully tried to turn the advantage to themselves, their mind cleared, focusing on nothing but the Go stones in front of them. Two people, linked by a goban from the past to the present, and the present to the past.

15-4 or 6-8? Should he defend or attack?

Deftly, almost even delicately, Hikaru placed the stone on 6-8, subtly laying a trap under the guise of attacking.

From a fast paced, heated game that had already started off as such, tensions mounted. The room seemed to rise in temperature as the intensity of both players increased. Whenever the two contrasting colours of Go stones met, it almost seemed as if a clash of lightning would strike across the goban itself. Weaving elegantly around each other, the shape of the go stones slowly but surely emerged. Both Sai and Hikaru were going full out, mercilessly trying to grasp holding of that single eluding victory. Sai faced strategies not yet discovered, while Hikaru faced the overwhelming strength accumulated in a thousand years. It was a battle of pure wills as much as a battle of skills.

But soon, someone had to give way; someone had to break under the strain.

Someone had to lose.

Gradually, the pace of the game slowed, moving pass yose, to that final end when the results would be revealed.

But the results didn't matter as much to Hikaru as the game did. No, it was the match itself that really mattered. The game felt extremely gratifying to Hikaru. He was sure that this was one game that he was going to remember for years to come.

Hikaru had never even brought the game to yose before when he had faced Sai in a real match. He had once took it for granted that he would never ever beat Sai. Perhaps it was that psychological factor that caused him to forever face Sai with less than his hundred and one percent effort that he usually took to try and beat Touya Akira.

But now of course it seemed that all psychological barriers had been broken down and Hikaru had no such qualms about trying to beat Sai.

Not that he could even when he tried his best.

Hikaru sighed and groaned unhappily.

"With the komi…one and a half moku….!"

Despite being _slightly_ disappointed that he lost yet again, Hikaru couldn't quite keep the wide grin off his face for long.

"That was a great game, Sai! You're really strong, eh?"

"Thank you, Hikaru. It was a great game indeed." Sai replied, opened up his fan again and shyly hid behind it. "You played really well too, Hikaru. Every move was very well executed. If I hadn't been going full out, I think you would have beaten me." Sai said modestly.

Hikaru yawned.

His exhaustion finally catching up to him and shook his head tiredly.

"Me? Beat you! No way! I went more than full out on you and even though I managed to somehow confuse you with some of the modern strategies, you still won!"

Even though more than half of his facial features were behind the fan, Hikaru knew that Sai was wearing a pleased expression. Like any normal being, Sai enjoyed being praised.

Hikaru looked out of the window, noticing that night had long fallen. There was a nagging feeling at the back of his mind that he had forgotten something, but being thoroughly exhausted at that point in time, he merely battered away that said nagging feeling and laid his head down on the pillow.

He barely managed to mumble a 'good night' to Sai before finally giving in to sweet oblivion.

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By the time Hikaru had noticed what he had forgotten the next day, it was too late.

"Hikaru-kun, where is your homework?" the teacher asked patiently.

Hikaru merely looked guilty before replying with a sheepish tone.

"Eh… My dog ate it?"

The silence that followed that statement was deafening.

And so, the day proceeded normally. Or as normally as it can be with a ghost and a little brother tagging you everywhere you go. Though strangely, it didn't bother Hikaru as much he thought it might. It helped that he was usually quiet, of course.

After another mind-numbing science lesson, the twins were walking back to their classroom, with Daisuke exclaiming over how absolutely fascinating that acid plus bases created salt and water….

"Hey, Daisuke?"

"Yeah, nii-chan?"

"When did you learn to play Go?"

Scratching his head for a moment, Daisuke tapped his chin and replied.

"When we were about seven I think. Grandpa taught me. He wanted to teach you too, but you didn't seem very interested…."

Then suddenly smiling widely, Daisuke continued.

"When we both beat him yesterday, his expression was so funny!" He promptly chuckled.

Hikaru laughed as well, remember the gobsmacked expression on his grandfather's face was just too funny. If only he had a camera on hand at that time…

"So… How about a game with Sai?"

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Right after they reached home, the twins shouted a 'tadaima!' to their mother before swiftly going to their room. Hikaru plopped down onto his bed.

"Ready, Daisuke?"

Daisuke nodded. With Daisuke holding a black stone in hand, the game began.

It wasn't right to compare. But Hikaru found himself doing it anyway. Compared to the game he had with Sai, it was frustratingly and disappointingly boring. It had been clear from the start that Sai was the stronger opponent. Even before reaching mid game, Daisuke had resigned and was now complaining to Hikaru.

"Nii-chan! Sai squashed me like an ant!"

To console Daisuke, Hikaru reassured him:

"Don't worry Daisuke. I got squashed yesterday too."

Unable to refute the statement, Sai just turned around and pouted slightly.

While smiling at Sai's antics, Hikaru had half his mind occupied by the game he just saw.

'This playing style… I know it…' For some reason, Daisuke's playing style was eerily reminiscent of someone…..

"Yoshiku!" Hikaru gasped before clasping his hands on his mouth and rapidly making up an excuse.

"I mean… yoshiki! Sai's playing style is old. He didn't play for more than a hundred years so there are bound to be many things he didn't know… We need to help him update this style, right Sai?"

Sai and Daisuke looked at each other.

Daisuke seemed to think about it for a moment, before asking:

"How are we going to do that?"

Hikaru let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding and prepared to rack brain for an answer. Going to Go salons meant he had to have money, which he didn't unless he asked from his parents. And he didn't think they would allow him to go yet. Not at this point, when they seem so overwhelmingly more protective than they had been in the other universe. He could go to the internet café and let Sai play, but playing lousy opponents wouldn't really help, would it? Then the answer itself came to his mind.

"Why don't we attend a few Go classes?"

After demanding from their very much amused father that he must absolutely sign them up for Go class, Daisuke managed to persuade Hikaru using guilt trips and puppy dog eyes into finally teaching him how to play the long over-due Rockman DASH.

"Waaah, nii-chan! Those three wolf reaverbots are so difficult to kill!"

Even Sai, who had at first protested about not playing Go seemed very much excited by the 'box with people inside' and was almost bouncing up and down.

"Left! Right! Noooo! Ahhh! You got killed….."

Hikaru sat at on his bed and sniggered about how it was the third time his brother got killed by the three wolf-like enemies.

Catching his 'nii-chan' laughing at him, Daisuke sulked and pushed the controller to him.

"Hikaru! Don't be so mean…."

Within seven minutes after the noise of all the shooting died down, Hikaru had easily breezed through the ruins without much injury to the main character at all. Silently, he handed the controller back his little brother, determined to not laugh at the incredulous expression on his little brother's face.

What he didn't expect was when Daisuke burst out laughing and hugged Hikaru briefly.

"Thank you for beating the game for me!"

Hikaru only frowned at the fact that he had been tricked but couldn't suppress the urge to tousle Daisuke's hair.

The rest of the day was mostly spent with Daisuke trying to beat the game while Hikaru and Sai sat down for a casual game of Go.

Stars twinkled merrily in the dark sky, almost as if happy to accompany the brightly lit moon gently shining down upon mortals.

Lying awake on his bed at night, staring out of the window at the night sky, Hikaru continued to ponder upon the reason Daisuke played in the same way that was so alike his best student, Yoshiku.

Now… if it wasn't for the fact that he was clearly in the past and in a parallel world's past no less, he would have thought that it was a coincidence. As such….

Hikaru looked at the heavens and scowled.

He could only blame kami.

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Two simultaneous yawns made Sai look disapprovingly upon the two Shindou brothers. Using his fan, he tapped lightly on both their heads.

"Hikaru, Daisuke! Cover your mouths when you yawn! It's so rude."

As per usual, they ignored Sai's 'scolding'.

Currently, they were in the district Go club nearby their house that their father had signed them up for. It was an ordinary room with white-washed walls and a big magnetic goban in the front of the room. Several rows of long tables were placed and chairs positioned on either side of the table. Other than the cheap foldable goban in between the two opposite seats, nothing else was worth noticing.

The Go strategies shown on the board in the front of the class was offering nothing to Sai because most of them were merely basic ones. Among the three of them, only Sai still seemed excited in spite of the disappointingly fundamental tactics.

"When can we start playing Go or something? This is so boring….."

Hikaru just sighed since he had no answer to that. If his memory served him well, they should be able to play soon. But then again, Hikaru doesn't usually trust his memory on anything out of kifu and Go strategies.

To Hikaru, the strategies shown on the board wouldn't apply much in a real match, because rarely would things turn out exactly as shown. Under the stifling pressure and rising tension, the possibilities of a person even remembering the strategies he or she had learnt are very much questionable.

"Ne, Hikaru… I wonder how strong of a player is the teacher?"

"Shirakawa-sensei is a pro, meaning he makes a living playing Go. He's a high dan pro too, so he's probably very strong."

At that time, the teacher finally announced one very welcomed piece of news.

"Ok! Let's stop here and play some matches."

Immediately, Hikaru and Hikaru both sat up straighter in their seats. Whilst chorus of 'onegaishimasu' echoed around the classroom, Hikaru asked Daisuke if he wanted to play shidou-go with him and Sai.

"Daisuke and I can both learn from Sai while Sai can pick up more modern Go strategies. Right?"

Daisuke got a five stone handicap and the game was just about to begin when it was interrupted by the teacher.

"Shindou Hikaru and Shindou Daisuke right?" He looked at the two of them and appeared to be confused as to who is who.

Daisuke cheerfully pointed out to him.

"Hai, we are! I'm Shindou Daisuke and this is my nii-chan, Hikaru!"

The teacher smiled kindly at them.

"Are you two beginners?"

Fighting to keep his face straight, Hikaru answered.

"Well… not really. I wouldn't say we are the strongest, but so far, we haven't lost to anyone yet."

'_Ne, Sai. Would you like to play a game with sensei?'_ Hikaru prodded Sai mentally. It was the first time he deliberately opened the link and used it.

Sai's eager nodding and an excited 'hai!' was all that was needed.

Hikaru pasted an innocent expression on his face and asked aloud.

"Shirakawa-sensei, shall we play a game of Go?"

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A/N: I'm actually pretty regretful that I had to cut away many of the more… interesting scene in this chapter. It would have been so much more fun….. Oh and I'm a wee bit offended that I actually got more than twice more alerts than reviews. Just a wee bit….. I had too much fun typing this chapter. Another thing is that school has arrived. :grimaces: Therefore, the next chapter would definitely take much longer to come out.

Again, I do not down Rockman DASH. Capcom does.

Definition:

Yoshiki means style.

In case any of you are interested, according to Wikipedia.

A Reaverbot is a fictional enemy in the Mega Man Legends series (known as Rockman DASH in Japan). Reaverbots populate the underground ruins where most of the series game play occurs, and are the most varied enemies in the game. The trademark appearance of a reaverbot always entails a red eye located on its body, as well as a distinctive design, marked with black grooves and segmented joints.

Critics? Opinions?


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Wow! Thanks for your support, people!

Disclaimer: The scent of roses wafted gently through her window. It was sweet, yet not too sweet. It was warm, but too much so. It held just a hint a freshness and a dash of spiciness.

She lay back on the rocking chair and closed her eyes, perhaps for the final time, simply breathing in what she could take into her weak lungs. After passing eighty-eight winters and summers, she could feel that her time was nearing – the slowness of her heart, a song that was not meant for mortal ears to hear.

Drifting along the oceans of memories that inevitably come with the meeting of Death itself, she allowed a small smile to grace her lips. She patiently waited.

"Ao Yuki does not own Hikaru no Go..." The words drifted ghostly pass her ears as she took her last breath.

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Chapter 5

Michio Shirakawa, like most in his profession, genuinely enjoyed teaching. They could be elderly citizens who merely wanted to pass time, with neither hide nor tail of talent in the game. Or they may be young children whom parents forced them to attend his classes. Whoever they may be, he felt a certain compulsion, a sense of duty even perhaps, to instill the love for Go in them.

Despite what some might think about it secretly behind his back, he was contented to remain as a 7-dan player. He was a relatively good player. He enjoyed teaching Go in the neighborhoods. If the opportunity presented for him to advance his skills, he would take it, but for now, he would rather be happy and contented than ambitions and unhappy.

When one of his new students – one of his newest and youngest students at that, proposed to played a game with him, he had readily agreed. It was a good idea. They were his new students – barely attended one lesson in fact. He had yet to find out their playing style, weakness and generally how much they know about Go. Playing a game would be the best way of finding out.

However, after the goban were set up, he was bewildered to find out that the said student intended to have an even match with him. He had been surprised and declined politely. He played shidou-go with his students, but an even game? It just wasn't very... right.

But even though Shirakawa had met many stubborn people before, he had never met anyone remotely like one the boy in front of him now. 'Shindou Daisuke' was stubborn to the point of a whole new level. After he had continued to insist – more like demand – Shirakawa felt that had no choice but to give in under the pressure, unless he wanted to make a scene. Internally, he felt a tinge of uneasiness as they nigiri. It was as if some sort of strange intuition was screaming at him that this game was a really bad idea. As a Go professional, he knew the importance of intuition. After all, these random insights could very possibly decide who emerged as the winner in the end.

And yet he had ignored them.

Because truth be told, he had slightly (just a little!) annoyed at the kid's presumptuous attitude.

After the two parties both exchanged the customary starting phrase, the game went under-way.

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As far as shocks went, Shirakawa thought he probably had worse. However, at that moment, all he could do was try not to drop his jaw as an instinctual reaction of utter disbelief.

He had at first, despite his initial agreement to play an even match with the boy, made a decision to beat handicap himself by 2 moku. After all, there was absolutely no point in shattering the boy's hopes and dreams.

However as the game progressed onwards, he felt increasingly drawn into the game. He eventually forgot that he was playing against a young boy, barely half his age. He forgot that he was supposed to be the teacher here.

Because it didn't felt like that. The way Shindou Hikaru played was nothing like how a child who had just picked up the game would. Idly, he wondered if Touya Meijin had some illicit child beside Touya Akira.

Because it was impossible for a child to have the face of an innocent angel, but played with the strength of a demon.

Like witnessing the eventual clash of two oncoming trains, his eyes couldn't seem leave the goban. He would make his move, placing down a white stone with trembling hands and then waiting in trepidation as the inevitable clash of black against white congregated together. Time seemed to slow down around him while the game was ongoing; prolonging the state of clarity in his mind and only speeded back up when the game was finally over.

And in the end, he had lost by at least 6.5 moku. Feeling the sheer skillfully displayed manipulation of the Go stones hidden by the facade of youth amazed – maybe even terrified, him tremendously.

His mind in a whirl, thoughts torn in countless different directions all at once and spinning at the speed of light, Shirakawa felt his mouth open slightly as if he was about to say something. However, no words came out of his mouth. He was further dumbfounded when the boy merely stood up and thanked him politely for the game before dragging his brother away.

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Days passed and seldom did Shirakawa fail to think about the mysterious boy that possessed an immense aptitude for Go. He had the talent to read ahead and manipulate his opponents into a false sense of security. Every day, there would be moments where he would find himself pondering on the moves made, going through each stone meticulously and trying out the different formations which he might have won.

Although the playing style was old and was undoubtedly in an imitation of the renowned Go player, Shuusaku, he himself seemed to have an undercurrent of strength lying just beneath the surface that could only come with experience.

Or incredible talent.

A talent that Shirakawa found himself craving these days. If only he had that.

"Shirakawa! You have been unfocused the whole time we were discussing the game."

Startled, Shikarawa's train of thoughts was broken as he looked to see the study group's members looking at him inquisitively. He smiled rather sheepishly.

"Sorry, Morishita-sensei... I was just thinking about this game I played with a boy..."

"And a game played with one of your students is more interesting than analyzing this game, is it?" Morishita asked gruffly.

It seemed like Touya Meijin's recent surge in appearance on the weekly Go magazine did not sit well with Morishita-sensei. He frowned more than usual.

"Well..." Shirakawa started. He took a deep breath. "He was twelve years old, sensei. And he... he defeated me by 6.5 moku."

After that announcement, there was a stunned silence, as if people could not quite believe their ears, followed by tittering and general curiosity. He heard someone snicker.

That was okay. He was ready for the ridicule. After all, who would believe that a 7-dan could be beaten by a 12 year old?

A boy, perhaps the same age as the one who had defeated him, piped up cheekily.

"A really strong kid? Did you play with Touya Akira or something?"

An intense glare – fill with annoyance – was shot towards the person by Morishita and the said boy merely shrugged and slinked back into being mostly anonymous.

Shirakawa shook his head slightly.

"No... He said his name was Shindou..."

A slight pause ensued. He frowned, trying to recall the name.

"Shindou Daisuke," he finally replied.

"He cannot be Touya Akira, unless Touya Akira bleached his bangs," he mused vaguely to himself. Unlikely. Touya Akira had his father's demeanor. Imagining him with bleached bangs was like trying to imagine a Morishita-sensei that adored Touya Meijin.

"In fact," He straightened up. "I would say that this boy does not seemed to be the type of person that one would expect to be good in playing Go at all."

Morishita-sensei seemed intrigued. A mysterious child who had the strength to defeat a 7-dan player? Definitely seemed interesting.

"Well if he managed to beat you, I'd say he's pretty good. Whether he looks like he played go or not. Who knows, his father might have taught him since young. Would you recreate the game here?"

Morishita pointed to another goban that was currently empty.

Closing his eyes briefly to recall every exact detail of the game as much as possible, Shirakawa then plunged his hand into the go-ke and began reconstructing the game.

Five minutes later, the stunned silence happened again, this time stronger in intensity and thicker than custard. In front of their very eyes now lies a brilliant game, where the black stones were adroitly manipulated, slowly spreading its influence across the whole goban, exerting a certain power on the placement of the white stones.

One question ran through all their minds, some troubled, others intrigued or confused.

Who was this boy?

It was certainly surprising, to know that the game that lay on the goban right now was a game played between an unknown 12 year old boy and a 7-dan. But that wasn't the only surprise of that day.

"Morishita-sensei," Shirakawa found himself saying, breaking the silence.

Morishita's eyes locked onto his.

"I will be taking part in the titles match this year."

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"So how was it, Sai? Did you learn anything?"

After Sai had soundly defeated the sensei of the Go class, Hikaru and Daisuke did not return to the class again, preferring to spend their time mostly indoors hiding from the chill that seeped through every crack in the house. If it wasn't for the heater and the thick clothing, Hikaru thought he probably would have frozen to death. Winter had never seemed colder at that time.

"I learned a lot, Hikaru! Those tactics would be unthinkable in the Heian period! The move 18-3 was really very well played, so was 16-12..." Sai jabbered on enthusiastically.

Around the kotatsu in the living room, Daisuke had laid his head down on the short table, seemingly asleep, while Hikaru was thoroughly enjoying a hot mug of chocolate drink and watching television.

On Go of course.

Having his initial delight and curiosity about the 'people playing Go in a box' satisfied by the twins, Sai had settled down right in front of the television, staring intently at the game unfolding before his eyes. Nevertheless, Sai was not one to simply look and do nothing. Sometimes when the players made a particular move, he would exclaim in surprise or sometimes, disappointment, then discuss at length. Although Daisuke had seemed mildly interested at first, he soon fall prey to the works of sandman.

After the game between two eight-dan players had finally reached a conclusion, the reporter announced the next programme to Hikaru's astonishment.

"Next up is a game between the person said to be the closest to the Hand of God, triple-title holder, Touya Meijin, and the young 9-dan Go-pro Ha..."

The rest of the words failed to register in Hikaru's mind as he looked at Sai's face, attempting to decipher Sai's thoughts. Sai's eyes were fixated on the television screen, his expression severe. As the game continue was in progress, Sai's facial features tightened further.

In barely a whisper, he said.

"Hikaru... The way this man plays isn't simply that of a Meijin... Even in Shuusaku era there weren't many that could play like this... This man..."

Fate had a way of making everything seemed like an accident. At that moment, Daisuke woke up. Unfortunately, the sudden movement of his hand brushing pass a mug half-filled with chocolate caused the whole mug to topple over, spilling the thankfully already cold chocolate drink all over Hikaru's lap.

"Waah! Daisuke!" Hikaru cried out in aghast.

"Ah! Nii-chan! So sorry! Sorry sorry!"

The rest, as they say, is history.

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Groggily, Hikaru raised his right hand and slammed it onto the blaring alarm clock conveniently placed right beside his head, designed specifically to annoy him until he awoke in the morning. The silence was sweet bliss to his much abused ears, allowing him to finally start drifting off into dreamlands once more. Unfortunately, his mother's rather muffled shouts one storey below woke him up again.

"Hikaru! Daisuke! You two will be late again if you don't wake up now!"

For five full seconds, Hikaru's eyes remained closed. Then very reluctantly, he dragged himself out of bed, still feeling as if he was a zombie. Purely based on reflexive reaction, he managed to make his way half-way to the door before Sai's hesitant prodding woke him up further.

"Hikaru? I think there is something wrong with Daisuke..."

It took a couple of seconds for the words to register in his brain, and a couple of seconds to turn his head to look at Sai.

"...Huh?" he asked intelligently, an expression of utter confusion on his face, as if his ability to decipher words had abruptly disappeared.

"Ano...Daisuke...there seems to be something wrong with him..." Sai trailed off. There was a slight frown on his face, and Hikaru could feel the concern that ghost was feeling.

Hikaru was annoyed at first. But there was something about the still form lying in front of him that had him feeling slightly concerned himself. Hikaru moved slowly over to Daisuke's bed. Usually, Daisuke would be the one waking up earlier, eerily at almost at the same moment as soon as the alarm clock started its annoying ring and causing a racket himself. Daisuke was almost an irritatingly easy person to understand. He was quietly cheerful, he was easy-going, and he was (to Hikaru's disgust) very much a morning person.

Hikaru had always trusted his instincts. And right now his gut instinct told him that something was wrong with Daisuke.

"Oi, Daisuke! It's time to wake up." Hikaru shook him a little.

However, there was no indication that Daisuke heard him at all. If anything, he seemed to slip deeper into sleep.

Hikaru felt a rising uneasiness as he felt the abnormally intense heat seeping through Daisuke's pajamas. Cautiously, he pressed the back of his hand against Daisuke's forehead but quickly jerked his hand away, alarm bells ringing full blast in his head. The heat emanating from Daisuke was definitely way beyond the body's normal temperature.

His forehead was practically on fire. From what he knew of fevers, if the temperature rose any higher…

Hikaru flew down the stairs, shouting for his mother all the time.

"Mom! MOM!"

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The motionless prone form of Daisuke lying on the bed seemed to be an effective silencer for both Sai and Hikaru. Neither of them knew particularly what to say. Hikaru's mother on the other hand, sat on the other side of the bed, holding a wet cloth provided by the hospital to his forehead. Her eyes were red. Occasionally, she would remove the cloth and dip it into a small basin of ice water, squeeze the water out and then placed it back onto Daisuke's forehead again. The process continued to repeat every five minutes or so.

As the Sun rose and set, a total of three nurses came and went. His father had rushed to the hospital the moment he received the news. Looking every bit as distressed as his mother did, the first thing his father did was to hug his mother, and kissed her lightly on her cheek.

He saw the red eyes, the trembling hands of his wife. Seeing how worried his wife was, he sighed and told Hikaru.

"Look after your little brother okay?" He tousled Hikaru's hair. "I'm going to take your mom to the cafeteria to grab something. We'll be back soon."

Hikaru frowned and nodded his head.

The two of them went out of the ward.

With an uncharacteristic frown on his face, Hikaru thought back onto the conversation that he had overhead between his mother and the doctor just outside the door.

"_Doctor Riku, how is Daisuke, really? It...It is not a relapse is it? I... I don't know what I'll do if it is...His condition..." Hikaru's mother asked, sounding panicked and distressed. _

"_Shindou-san, calm down. It is not a relapse so please do not worry. Influenza has been rather rampant lately, especially because the weather is cold right now. It's not uncommon for a child to fall sick during this time... However, I will of course be suggesting a blood test to further confirm it," the doctor said gently._

_Giving a sigh of relief, Hikaru's mother thanked the doctor and came into the ward then._

_Hikaru sat beside her after that, slightly relieved to find that his mother's seemed to be holding herself together. Puzzlement dotted his face. Relapse? Relapse of what?_

_He casted some curious glances at his mother's face and Daisuke's. Despite the kinship he felt with Daisuke, he knew that know with every piece of information that he managed to know, there were many other things he didn't._

_He had let his guard down, but it was little things like this that reminded him that he was in a world not his own, with a twin brother he didn't thought he had and a ghost that liked to play Go._

Sai's voice penetrated his remises.

"Hikaru... Will Daisuke be all right? He looks so pale..." Sai whispered, almost as if he was afraid of waking up the comatose Daisuke.

"I'm not sure..." Hikaru replied distractedly as he stared at the face so similar to his own, yet now his own.

"Oh..." Sai mouthed.

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The two days he spent in the hospitals could only use three words to describe.

Boring.

Boring.

And you got it.

Boring.

Under the hospital stuff's tender loving care and the help of some really bitter pills, his forty one degrees Celsius fever quickly subsided. Unfortunately for him, the doctor insisted that he ought to 'stay for one more day under observation'. Which was the reason why he was now staring at the door of the hospital ward, willing with his mind for the doctor to finally come and dismiss him and trying to ignore Sai's chatters about Go yet again.

"Ne. ne, Daisuke. When we got out, we'll play Go again, okay?"

Daisuke groaned.

"Sai, don't you have something else to talk about other than Go?"

Sai looked slightly taken aback, as if he hadn't contemplated a world without Go before.

"Well, I used to like playing the flute…" he trailed off.

Daisuke sighed. If he wasn't so tired, perhaps Sai would be a better company. Go is interesting. Kinda. Just not right now. All he wanted to do was to get out of the hospital. Fast. Preferably now.

He had woken up to staring at one of his most dreaded sight: Hospital ceiling. His nose confirmed that yes; he was indeed in where he thought he was at. No other place could smell as vile as the disinfectant that every hospital loved to use.

In his earlier life, he had spent so much time staring at that same particular ceiling and smelling the same particular disinfectant that occasionally, he would have nightmares where the four almost blindingly white walls of the room would start closing onto him. When he ran out of the room, sprinting like he could never do in real life, it was always towards an exit that was getting further away from him with every passing second. Desperation would sink in, and then the hopelessness.

Thankfully, the alarm clock would ring at that point in time and he would bounce up from the bed, grateful to get away from his nightmare.

Which was why when he woke only to see the same ceiling that haunted his nightmares again, he felt the usual sinking feeling again. Why was he here again? He quickly sat up, fully prepared to bolt if this was his nightmare again. But the moment he saw his nii-chan however, he calmed down.

It wasn't a nightmare then.

However, the visiting hours were soon over. He would be left again then. Despite trying not to think too hard about staying alone in the hospital ward, he became increasingly withdrawn and quiet.

With a slightly hesitant look on his face, Hikaru announced.

"Sai, stay here and look after Daisuke. After Daisuke recovers, I'll take you somewhere where you can play all the Go you want, ok?"

Without giving anyone a chance to speak, Hikaru left and the door swung shut.

Sai had been good company, alleviating his boredom by talking about the interesting happenings in the Heian period. The ghost's yearning to play Go made Daisuke feel guilty for not being able to fulfill his wishes because there were no gobans around.

Doctor Riku came and went. Every time, he would be accompanied by a nurse,

And every time, Daisuke eagerly asked.

"Can I leave now? Can I?"

This time, the doctor just chuckled and checked a clipboard at the end of the bed.

"Hmm... RBC count regular... WBC slightly lower than usual..." The doctor mumbled under his breath while using a pen to note something down.

"Now Shindou-kun stay still while I take your temperature."

As soon as the expected 'beep' sounded, Doctor Riku removed it and glanced at the number displayed on the digital screen of the thermometer.

It was difficult to read the expression on his face. Daisuke leaned forwards slightly, trying to read the number for himself.

Then the doctor broke out into a smile.

"Congratulations, Daisuke. You are free to leave."

A burst of happiness and relief welled up in him. He let out a whoop of delight, hugging both the doctor and nurse briefly to show his appreciation.

Finally, he was getting out from the hospital.

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'_Nii-chan?'_ Daisuke mentally nudged his brother, who was still in school, hesitantly.

They had discovered the said mental links in an accident and they hardly used it if they could help it. Both of them preferred to talk properly. Using the mental links was uncomfortable for both of them, even if it was useful when they didn't have a telephone.

'_Daisuke?'_

'_Doctor Riku let me out!'_ he replied with a grin on his face.

'_Huh? But I'm still in school. Who's coming to pick you up?'_

'_Hm, you don't have to worry! I'll just walk around here and wait for you.'_

'_But you just got discharged. And you're twelve year old. How about you call Mom and ask her to bring you home?'_

Even though he knew that Hikaru couldn't see him, Daisuke shook his head.

'_No! Mom will get worried again. And it's too troublesome for her to come here. School is so much nearer. Also, Sai is with me, right?'_

Sai added in cheerfully.

'_Hai, Hikaru! I'll make sure Daisuke doesn't get into trouble... Oh and remember to play a game with me when we go home!'_

'_...Ok then. I'll come as soon as school ends.'_

With that, both of them closed the mental links. For the first time in a long while, Daisuke was out without a human companion. The hustle and bustle of the crowd fascinated him. There were so many people rushing about, all strangers to him and all so different. Strolling along the train station, Daisuke was absorbed in his own thoughts, when Sai suddenly grabbed his shoulder and exclaimed.

"Look, look, Daisuke! It's Go! People are playing Go inside!"

"Huh?" Daisuke turned his head to find a Go salon right in front of his eyes.

He looked at Sai's brightly shining eyes, then at the Go salon, before raising his fist and punching the air.

"Come on, Sai! We're going to play some Go!"

"Hooray!" Sai said with a childish excitement of glee, and they entered the Go salon.

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A/N: The actual chapter was actually supposed to be longer than this, but I thought this was a good place to end off. I've reserved the next part for next chapter so maybe it'll take me shorter to update...Maybe. Oh and for those who wants to have a reply to their review, signing in would be good.

_Sneak preview for next chapter:_

"_Sure, I'll play you," was the boy's reply, then stood up and pointed to the back of the Go salon._

"_Let's go to the back... My name is Touya Akira."_

Extra info:

41 degrees Celsius is 105.8 degrees Fahrenheit.

Useful critics and opinions are fully welcomed!


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Well... it took slightly longer. But exams don't wait for humans.

Disclaimer: The softest of wind combed across the forest of evergreen, leaving the leaves rustling in synchrony at its wake. Moonlight the colour of pale daisies filtered its way through the fluffy clouds. An old woman surveyed the land below her. Wistfully, she thought back on the days when her bones didn't creak as much, when she fought monsters thrice her size and lived to tell the tale.

'Justin... Alex and Shana... how long it has been since you left. El Nido has changed so much...'

Now, all that was left of the legendary four was a necklace, one that once bounded them together as one, that marked them as the true heroes of the world.

Clutching the necklace to her heart, the old woman wept, tears falling down her old wrinkled face in torrents. Carved on the back of the necklace was their motto.

_Ao Yuki will never own Hikaru no Go._

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Chapter 6

"Welcome!"

The first thing that Daisuke noticed when he stepped into the Go salon was the sound of the Go stones clacking against many the gobans like raindrops upon a metal roof. A strangely peaceful feeling settled over him as he watched the many patrons playing Go. The receptionist, a girl who seemed to be in her early twenties, gave him a friendly smile.

Daisuke gave a small smile back and whispered under his breath to Sai nervously.

'Sai. Everyone's an adult here. Are actually allowed to play here...?'

"Excuse me? Could you write your name down here please... Is this your first time here?" The receptionist interrupted Sai's reply, handing him a clipboard. Her smile relaxed him.

Daisuke took the pen and wrote down 'Shindou'.

"Ah. Er. Yes, actually... This is my first time anywhere, really... It's just….an I play Go here?"

"Of course! Write your Go level here."

Daisuke moved as if to pick up the pen again, but then paused.

"I'm sorry... But I don't know..."

Daisuke knew that Sai was strong. To be a Go tutor to the emperor, he had to be. However, since the only games he saw Sai play was with his grandfather and Hikaru, there wasn't really any way of measuring Sai's strength. And anyway, he suspected writing '9-dan' on the clipboard when he was a kid wouldn't go over well.

"You don't know?" the receptionist inquired skeptically.

"Yeah. Since he... I've only played two people before. I think I'm pretty strong though..."

"Ne, ne, Daisuke! Look, there's a boy over there!"

He turned his head. His eyes landed on a boy sitting alone and he felt a vague sense of familiarity. Hadn't he seen him in some magazines before? Daisuke shook his head once and the feeling went away. Smiling due to Sai's excitement seeping through the link, he approached the table where the boy was seated at.

"Yay! We're going to play Go!"

Daisuke smiled.

He arrived at the table.

"Excuse me, would you like to play a game?" he asked politely.

As the boy turned his head around, and Daisuke saw his face fully for the first time, the feeling came back in full force.

Yes, he was pretty sure that the boy had been on the cover of some magazine before. Maybe he was a model.

"Sure, I'll play you," was the boy's reply, then stood up and pointed to the back of the Go salon.

"Let's go to the back... My name is Touya Akira."

This time, Daisuke frowned slightly in concentration, trying to recall what it was that made Sai's newly acquired opponent so familiar. Even the name triggered a memory of something he couldn't quite name. Touya Akira?

Realising that he had not introduced himself yet, Daisuke quickly said.

"Ahh... I'm Shindou Daisuke."

Cheerfully, the boy replied.

"Hello, Shindou-san."

However, at that moment, the receptionist's voice pierced through the air.

"Hey, wait! You haven't paid yet. Children are 500 yen."

Mortified, Daisuke apologized and hastily dug into his pocket. However, luck was not with him. He had absolutely no money on hand, having just been discharged from hospital. Frantically, he searched all his pockets again. He could just about imagine himself being chased out of the salon with a goban... the feeling of go stones hitting the back of his head...

"This is his first time here right, Ichikawa-san? Why don't we give him a break?"

Daisuke looked up in surprise. Would they do that for him? Really?

He let out a sigh of relief when the receptionist agreed immediately, looking strangely even happier.

"Ahh... Thanks for that..." Daisuke said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

"No problem. Here we are."

As Daisuke sat down on the surprisingly soft chair (probably made so the older clients of the Go salon wouldn't leave with backaches).

Thinking about the old patrons reminded him of his parent's worried expression. It was the expression that he was most used to. Worried smiles and worried hushed voices, worried teary eyes and worried hugs that he got.

He couldn't help but feel guilty. He knew that this wasn't really the place to be brooding, but the other boy – Akira – seemed to be busy with tidying out the stones on the goban, which left him with a bit of time to just sit and think while he picked up the white stones and tried to find for the go-ke.

Ever since he was young, they constantly fretted over him. Even when he had been discharged from hospital. Even when he had been declared fully recovered. The drugs that he had to take caused his immune system to be slightly weaker than the average person, and he got ill so often that it almost led to the point of having his own ward specifically in the hospital just for him.

When his parents told him that he could attend school, his first reaction was an utter elation. For days, he couldn't stop talking about it. He couldn't stop asking Hikaru about what was expected of him, what they did there, and most importantly, it was anything like those anime and movies that he had watched about school.

But his happiness at finally getting a chance to be normal was followed closely by fear.

All he had were years and years of solitude. Save for the occasional walks out with his family, he might as well have thought that no one else existed besides doctors and nurses. He had been staring at the same nightmarish white walls that haunted both his dreams and waking moments almost the moment he was born. Was he really ready for school? His contact with other people his age was only limited to his brother and a few children who came and went in the hospital. Despite his parents' reassurances, Daisuke didn't felt ready.

He didn't felt as if he would ever be ready.

Unfortunately, going to school had confirmed his fears. At first.

His brother had long since established his position in school as the class clown. Although he was the source of vexation for many teachers and pupils alike - failing to hand up homework and pulling pranks on unsuspecting victims, everyone had a soft spot for him. He managed to win over the strictest teachers without even seemingly trying.

But Daisuke? Daisuke was an unknown that no one knew what to make of. He was too quiet, and he looked too much like Hikaru.

The first day of school laid vivid in his memories.

The moment he entered the classroom and faced the whole class, his tongue seemed to have shockingly frozen itself to the back of his throat.

He couldn't help it. There were just so many of them! He didn't expect to have so many people staring right at him.

His mind was empty. He couldn't speak a single word.

He shouldn't be afraid in the first place – really, there wasn't much to be frightened of. But that didn't change the pure, undulated fear that gripped his heart tightly, cold and unrelenting.

Even though he had practiced his self-introductory speech at home for more times than he cared to count, at that moment all the words appeared to have suddenly grown wings and flown away from his mind to sun-tan on the beach in Hawaii.

There had been a prolonged awkward silence, where he stared at the class and the class stared back at him. He could feel the snickering, bubbling so close to the surface...

Then as if in slow motion, Daisuke then saw Hikaru stand up, tall and proud. He pointed to him and proclaimed.

"_That's my little brother Shindou Daisuke and together, we're the Shindou twins!"_ He then proceeded to give an impromptu and hilarious introduction to the Shindou family, grinning widely all the time.

At that time, the waves of extreme gratitude he felt was almost enough to cause his legs to give way. But he willed himself to continue standing. Slowly, he gave a smile.

It was a somewhat bitter smile.

Because once again, Hikaru had saved hm.

"So, how good are you?"

Startled out of his contemplations, Daisuke realized that the goban had been cleared.

"I'm not sure exactly. But I'm probably... strong," he replied lamely.

Touya Akira didn't seem to notice however.

"Not sure but strong? How about you put down 4 or 5 stones then?"

Daisuke merely blinked a few times. He couldn't detect any arrogance from the sitting opposite him... So that must mean this Touya Akira felt that he was stronger than him...

"I don't think I need a handicap... I mean, we're the same age." Daisuke reasoned.

A small hint of a blush surfaced on the other boy's face and Daisuke noticed a few patrons snickering.

"Well... Yeah... You're right..." Touya Akira replied, slightly chagrined.

Sai's impatience was starting to show; he was shuffling about behind Daisuke more often than usual. Randomly grabbing a go-ke, Daisuke inclined his head slightly.

"If you don't mind," Daisuke said as he opened the lid of the go-ke to discover that he got black, "I'll have black then."

Touya Akira had no objections, taking the go-ke containing white go stones for himself.

A distant rumble of thunder could be heard if one listened carefully. Unconcerned, the patrons of the go salon continued their game in silence. Following the thunder, rain soon fell in torrents from the sky, drowning out all other noises from the street.

Daisuke picked up a black go stone.

And with the first 'clack' of the go stone against the goban, the game between the ghost of the past and the genius of the present began.

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Leaving Sai at the hospital with Daisuke had been strangely... easier than he had expected. There was no inexplicable ache in his heart, no spectacular heart-wrenching tears and jealousy that someone else was able to see Sai.

He had made a decision, and stayed with it. That was that.

Perhaps the several years that he had spent attempting to get used to a world without Sai really did mature him. He knew that Sai was a ghost. He was pretty certain that in the natural order of things, one wasn't supposed to be able to talk to ghosts.

It was an incredible feat that he was able to speak with one. He shouldn't have expected it to stay with him forever. But he did. He should have just count his blessings that Sai had appeared. But he didn't. Without Sai's appearance, he wouldn't have taken the path that he did or done the things he had.

Even with Sai in front of him, the sense of loss was still there and it probably always would be. Losing someone close to you left a permanent scar that time could never heal fully. Life had to go on however, and Sai would have wanted him to be happy.

Wasn't it stupid? That while he wanted Sai to come back, he didn't really wanted him back at the same time?

Walking alone into the bedroom, Hikaru almost felt as if it was all just a dream. It hit him just then. Meeting his twin brother, seeing Sai again, going to school, realizing he was probably in another dimension. All of them seemed so improbably _surreal_ and so _absurd_. It was as if everything was just an illusion waiting to be broken.

Fumbling about for the switch in the orange dim light cast by the street lamps, Hikaru muttered a curse under his breath as the light switch continued to elude him.

Finally, his hand hit the switch protruding out on the wall, and he flicked it on. Bright florescence light spilled down from the light bulb. Wearily, he walked towards the bed and then allowed his head to hit the pillows. Staring at the ever so familiar ceiling above him, Hikaru could allow himself to believe that this was just another day in his ever busy life of a Go-pro, and everything had just been a dream.

A very realistic dream, but still a dream. Maybe it was. Maybe this really was a dream originating from the time he hit his head on the tombstone. Maybe his real physical body was just lying deathly still on the hospital bed with people coming and going, wondering if he would ever wake...

Sighing, Hikaru flipped to his side to observe the rest of the bedroom. Other than the extra bed, he saw subtle changes here and there that told him that this wasn't his room. Strangely enough, there was another underlying feeling that he was missing something in front of him. It felt like his subconscious had noticed something his conscious didn't; just like the times when he was certain that he would lose a game, and then his mind would just suddenly sharpen with certainty that he could win. Even though it would take him another hour to find that path to victory.

Hikaru observed the room thoughtfully

Sitting up on his bed, he proceeded to pull open drawers, open up the cupboards, wrench out boxes under the bed.

Judging by the situation, he probably wasn't going to go dimension travelling back to his own world any time soon. Which means he would have to at least pretend to be... well... himself. His younger self.

It shouldn't be too difficult. How difficult was it to be yourself?

And to do that, he would need information. That meant going through everything in his other-self's bedroom. He felt almost guilty for ruffling through things that didn't belong to him. Though technically, they did belong to him... Just that it wasn't really the him that was him right now...

Pushing the confusing thoughts out of his mind, he concentrated on the pile of things in the box that he dragged out from under 'his' bed.

The first thing his hand grabbed was a thick photo album. Slightly puzzled, Hikaru wondered what it held. He didn't recall having a photo album under his bed back in his own world. Flipping through it, Hikaru could feel a small smile tugging at a corner of his lips. Here were the pictures recording the life of 'Hikaru' in this world. In one of the pictures, he saw 'himself' as a young boy (five years old maybe?) sullenly glaring back at the photographer, his eyes holding a small gleam of light that promised horrors beyond horrors to the person who did that to him.

He was in a frilly pink dress that was entirely too big for him. Wearing a filly pink cap that did not go well with the bleached bangs.

Reeling in his laughter at the hilarious sight, Hikaru continued flipping through the pages, enjoying himself by looking through the pictures. Other than their looks, there were several similarities, it seemed, that he shared with the Hikaru of this world. For example, both of them appear to be in the soccer team, evident by photos 'Hikaru' had taken with the soccer team.

Reaching the end of photo album, Hikaru shut it with a frown.

There was one prominent thing that he had noticed in all of them.

Daisuke was never in any of the photos. In all of them, he saw himself, his parents, and friends. They all made an appearance somewhere in the photo album.

But none of the pages held a photo of Daisuke. None. Nada. Zilch. Hikaru and Daisuke were clearly brothers. So where were the photos showing them together?

Bewildered, Hikaru was about to place the album aside, when several photos fell out from the cover of the photo album and landed on the floor. The moment his eyes landed on them, they widened in shock.

He finally found pictures of his twin brother. But they weren't exactly how he pictured them to be.

The Hikaru in the picture was smiling with a mischievous glint in his eyes, his arms around Daisuke.

What shocked him however, was not how _Hikaru_ looked, but _Daisuke_.

He was pale, paler than any human had the right to be and paler than even Sai looked. While Sai's paleness was more of an ethereal glow, Daisuke's paleness showed in his skin, and his eyes. His skin was pallid, tinted with a slight ugly bluish tone. His blood-shot eyes were that of a person in pain, weary and tired. Not a strand of hair was on his head, just a loop-sided birthday hat that seemed horribly out of place. Despite the smile on his face, Hikaru could see that it was forced, perhaps a pretentious act to fool people into thinking that everything was fine.

He should know. He had the same smile on sometimes.

Hikaru swallowed the lump in his throat. What happened to Daisuke in the past to make him look like that? He was sick, probably. But what sort of sickness could turn a cheerful Daisuke into the zombie-like boy in the pictures?

He forced himself to continue looking as the rest of the 'extra' photos. There weren't many.

He noticed that somehow, Daisuke seemed slightly more cheerful and his smile slightly wider, when it was a photo taken with the 'Hikaru' of this world. Obviously, the little brother adored the older brother, seeing him as his pillar of support.

Holding the photos in his hands, Hikaru wondered grimly what would happen to Daisuke if one day his 'onii-chan' disappeared, if Hikaru went back to his own world.

And he wondered, what exactly happened to the Hikaru of this world.

Shaking the dour thoughts out of his mind, Hikaru placed the pictures back into the photo album, clasping it in between the pages. He put it back beside the box.

A typical brown folder came out next.

Swiftly untying the thread binding the folder together, Hikaru removed the numerous sheets of papers inside, grimacing when he saw that they were health reports from the hospital. Nothing happy then, he supposed. Browsing through them briefly, he paused when his saw the word 'surgery'.

"Donor of he...he-ma-to-po-ie-tic stem cell transplantation...? What in the world is _that_?" Hikaru tested the word on his lips, feeling rather perplexed.

It was only when his eyes continue to travel down the sheet of paper on his hand and landed at the recipient's name that he realised that he had found something significant.

No wonder his parents had seemed more naggy and worried than he remembered.

No wonder Daisuke had seemed… well… extroverted at times and scarily withdrawn the next.

The conversation about 'relapses' that he over head from the hospital finally made sense.

_Recipient name: Shindou Daisuke_

_Treated for: Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia_

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There was a stillness in the atmosphere that had not been present before the game; an eerie prolonged silence that caused Daisuke to feel mildly oppressed by something he couldn't exactly name. He had felt the underlying tension escalating and mounting like dominoes between Sai and Akira throughout the game, each side exerting a silent pressure on each other.

And unfortunately for Daisuke, he had been the one stuck in the middle.

Throughout the game, random theories of why the name 'Touya Akira' sounded so familiar rose in his mind. Why did he remember him on a magazine? It was nearly mid-game that Daisuke finally remembered where he had heard of the name.

Touya Akira was Touya Meijin's son; he was the upcoming yonng Go genius who defeated many people, pros that were more than thrice his age, weight and height.

His grandpa had even once read out an article on Touya Akira. '_Leader of the next Go generation'_ they had called him.

Daisuke wasn't a great Go player – far from it in fact, but he could recognise strength when he saw it. The pattern that emerged from the clash of the two players both awed and frightened him.

And Sai was strong. Very strong, judging by how effortlessly he seemed to defeat Touya Akira. And Daisuke felt that this... this game in front of him wasn't all of Sai's strength. No, it may be merely a fragment of the ghost's Go skills. This game had been a controlled victory all along. Sai was merely testing Touya Akira's skills.

Daisuke risked a glance at Touya Akira. However, with his head was bowed in defeat and his face obscured by his bangs, Daisuke could read his face as well as he could read Greek. A sense of foreboding suddenly gripped him. Some random voice at the back of his head nagged at him, telling him that he should really leave now.

Of course, after staying so long at the hospital he knew that 'voices at the back of your head' was the first sign of schizophrenia and one should never listen to them. However, Daisuke thought that he ought to listen to it just once.

"I… I think I'm leaving now..." Daisuke said in a soft voice.

The other boy remained silent, his head bowed.

The silence never seemed more pronounced as he walked from his seat to the entrance, the distance from the back of the salon to the door seemingly elongated by someone...

Just as was about to reached the door, the receptionist stopped him.

"Oh wait! You might be interested in this..."

Without looking at what the receptionist was holding out, Daisuke grabbed hold of it and stuffed it in his pocket. Hastily, he bowed and mumbled a small 'thank you', before rushing out from the Go salon.

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Back at the Go salon, it was pure pandemonium.

Chaos.

Bedlam.

"What?! Akira-kun lost?"

"Impossible! For Akira-kun to have.."

"Did you lose, Akira-kun?"

"That boy had a handicap right..?"

"..Two moku..!"

"..The other kid did have black.."

Questions after questions were thrown at the green-haired boy. He hadn't moved an inch. Comments were made – some skeptical, some in awe, interrupting one another like old ladies haggling for a better price in a fish market. At last, even the receptionist herself, known as Ichikawa, stepped in.

"Wait a second! Did you really lose, Akira-kun? Because that kid said he only played two people before!"

The sound of a chair being dragged across the floor echoed in the silence that preceded the statement. Touya Akira stood up with a shocked expression on his face, his eyes staring disbelievingly at the game that lay before him.

It was _impossible_.

It just…

He turned and dashed out of the Go salon.

The only thing that was on his mind was to find the boy and get some answers from him.

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Gradually, the train screeched to a halt. Together with the countless faceless commuters, Hikaru stepped out of the train. Hikaru made his way out of the train station Purely by auto-pilot mode. A dull grey sky and a faint smell of rain greeted him as he emerged from the underground station.

He knew he was running late to pick Daisuke up, but somehow he didn't think he would mind that too much. With Sai around, it was unlikely that Daisuke would be troubled by boredom. And their mental telepathy meant that any time he was in trouble, all he had to do was give him a call.

In Hikaru's hand, he held onto a small packet of cookies. Akari had cornered him after school and pushed the packet into his hands, telling him strictly that he was absolutely not to eat the cookies but to give them to Daisuke.

_Hikaru sighed and stuffed the cookies – carefully, into his pocket._

"_Oh wait!"_

_Turning around, Hikaru saw Akari running back._

"_Here! You can eat this instead."_

_She stuffed another small packet of food in his hands again – this time chocolates._

Walking along the pavement, surrounded by so many people, Hikaru absentmindedly kicked a tin can that was lying unassumingly on the ground. It was rather amusing to see that the Akari of this world hadn't changed at all.

The tin can rattled off, somehow managing to miss the many feet around that was threatening to flatten it. Hikaru's eyes followed it, until the tin can finally stopped.

Slowly, Hikaru's eyes travelled upwards, a feeling of increasing unease in the pits of his stomach...

Blue-green eye met jade green ones...

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A/N: Another 'disclaimer' of sort here is that I am by no means a doctor, or even have enough biology knowledge to call myself a true bio-student. Therefore if I happen to make some gigantic medical mistakes, and you happen to spot it, please do let me know.

Ending off merely as an after-thought...

Thanks to those people who reviewed. Those reviews are the ones that pushed me to finish my chapters. I dedicate this chapter solely to my reviewers.

-ahem- Oh and my lovely beta, frostedheavens of course.

As usual, all comments and critiques, welcomed, and flames are used to roast marshmallows.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Chapter 7 here. Hmm... Did my writing improve any?

Disclaimer: _Because fate is a fickle mistress..._

_Because destiny hates those who repels him..._

_Because life generally sucks._

_Therefore I do not own Hikaru no Go._

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Chapter 7

They tried their best to never speak of the time Daisuke spent in the hospital.

They didn't want to be reminded of it.

They were ashamed.

Ashamed that they had given birth to an abnormal child.

He had been five years old. He liked the beach and loved to laugh. But a single statement changed everything.

_'Your son has Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia.'_

The doctor's words shattered her world.

What exactly was this… this leukemia thing? Didn't it only ever happen to people in the television? How could Daisuke... how could _her son_. _Their_ son, get such a disease?

The immense sense of fear and shame. She never wanted to feel them again. She feared that she would lose one of her sons; her own flesh and blood. For a period of time, she hated kami. she hated them for placing such a curse on their family.

What had she done to deserve that? What had they done?

Was it… was it because of her?

She watched with her own eyes as the world around them abruptly changed to hell. Laughter transformed to tears. Visits to the amusement park became visits to the hospital.

She watched with her own two eyes how Daisuke wasted away. She saw the light in his eyes growing dimmer with the number of days he stayed in the hospital. She bore witness to how Hikaru – still innocent and young, tried to diffuse the atmosphere of despair while getting increasingly upset day by day.

But then the doctor threw her another bombshell.

He told her that her Hikaru would be able to save Daisuke, just by doing a simple surgery.

A stem cell transplant, they said. Hikaru was Daisuke's twin. Who better than him to be the donor?

They said it as if everything would be okay as soon as they got the permission, as if it things were ever that simple.

But she was horrified.

As if seeing one of her son waste away wasn't enough, they wanted to raise a knife and cut into her other son?

How could she _do_ that to Hikaru? She couldn't!

How could she give them the permission, the possibility of causing her other son's death? There was a chance of the operation failing, a probability that instead of losing one son, she would lose both of them!

She didn't want to take that chance. She just… couldn't. No matter how small the percentage, no matter how paranoid she was told she was being. She knew she was being selfish and she admitted her selfishness.

The doctors would perhaps, have mistakenly believed that she didn't care about her Daisuke at all.

It was unfair to Daisuke, not giving him the chance to live at all.

It was cruel in fact.

But oh Kami. She would kill herself before letting both her sons die.

If only she could be the donor. That, she didn't mind. But to have to risk her five year old son going into the surgical room and never coming out the same again…

She couldn't do it.

Instead, she chose to pretend that Daisuke's savior wasn't standing mere meters away. She chose to let her heart being torn to pieces as she saw the Daisuke's face that was... heard his screams for the pain to stop, while she waited outside the ward, one hand covering her mouth to stop herself from crying out loud at the same time. She would rather torture herself and wished fervently that there could be another donor.

Anyone. Anyone but her other. Please.

It was Hikaru that helped her to make the decision that salvaged everything.

"_Mom?"_

"_Yes, Hikaru...?"_

_A hesitant smile lighted up his face._

"_There's a surgery that can help Daisuke right?"_

_Shock was the only feeling she felt… 'No... He can't be... How..? How did he know about that?'_

"_Mom..?"_

"_Hikaru... You don't understand... It's not something so simple... I... You..."_

"_I want to help Daisuke, mom!"_

And somehow, the stubborn expression on his face, the jade-green eyes that was so identical to Daisuke, the small frown... They made the decision for her.

_'They look so much like their father...so much...'_

_The day of the surgery dawned bright and sunny, and even the wind felt as if it was humming a prayer of hope._

"_Mom?"_

"_Daisuke... Hikaru..."_

"_Don't be scared, mom! See? I'm not scared, so you must be brave too, okay?"_

_And she couldn't help the tears that fell, couldn't help but hug both of her sons as if her life depended__on it, her eyes never leaving the both of them as the doctor wheeled them into the operation room._

_Finally, Mitsuko allowed herself to fall into her husband's arms, sobbing as the door swung shut._

"_Daisuke will be fine, Mitsuko... They both will be... We must believe..."_

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"Please have another game with me!"

"Why should I?"

The shocked expression on Touya Akira's face was probably mirrored by the one on Hikaru's. The moment Hikaru's eyes rested on Touya Akira's youthful face, his stomach sank in a dawning realization.

It was that defining moment when Hikaru began missing his own world.

This boy in front of him wasn't his rival. He could be, perhaps, in the future. But right now, he wasn't the person that he had been chasing and running with all the time. Right now, he wasn't the same person that pushed him to want to learn Go.

The Touya Akira of his own world was a formidable Go player, holder of the Meijin and several other smaller titles.

This was just a young child that was a genius in playing Go.

Touya probably wouldn't have asked so politely anyway. He would've assumed that Hikaru wanted to play Go and immediately asked 'Black? Or white?'.

A hint of humiliation clouded the young boy's eyes.

"Please... I beg you."

How ironic. Before this... way before... it would probably have been Hikaru asking the same of Touya. Hikaru had always wanted Touya to stop, even if it was for a while, but he continued to run.

_'But he pulled you up as he ran pass didn't he?' _A voice sound suspiciously like Sai sneakily said at the back of his mind.

Was it to be his purpose here then? To be the wave that pushes the Go players in this world, beyond their own limits, just like Sai had been in his world?

And he paused for a moment, before making his decision.

_'Then I will pull you up. So that Daisuke will at least have someone... after I am gone.'_

"So... Black? Or white?"

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'Hmm... What did Sai called Touya...? Was it a dragon? Or a tiger?'

Hikaru wondered as both of them stepped into the familiar Go salon. The familiar yet strange sight seemed to bring forth a wave of memories from his world. The first time he stepped into the Go salon. How rude he must have been to call all of the patrons old geezers...

_'Though that's actually quite funny...'_

A voice suddenly interrupted his musings.

_'Eh? What's so funny, nii-chan?'_

Startled, Hikaru nearly turned around... before realising that he must have proclaimed that particular thought out loud to Daisuke.

_'Nothing, Daisuke,'_ he replied. _'By the way, I'll be late. Someone dragged me into a game of Go.'_

_'Okay! I'm waiting at the shopping mall nearby. Sai says he wants to go and see the music shop...'_

The said 'old geezers' all turned to stare at the two boys that just entered the Go salon; some with expression of surprise, some frowning at Hikaru.

He took a glance at young Touya beside him.

'The serious expression on his face... I can't just play shidougo with him., can I...'

Hikaru laughed inwardly.

'I' never thought there'll be the day that I would want to play a teaching game with Touya!'

"Akira-kun!"

Hikaru almost greeted Ichikawa-san, but barely managed to hold back.

"We'll be at the back." Akira intoned.

As they moved to the back of the Go salon, a low buzzing noise was heard as the patrons whispered amongst themselves. Some of them even stood up to follow them to the back of the Go salon.

Hikaru sweat-dropped slightly.

Really… Didn't they have better things to do?

"Please, sit."

Hikaru glared slightly in annoyance at the people surrounding them (they were cutting off the fresh air), before sitting down, He opened one of the go-ke, only to find white stones contained in it. Silently, he pushed it towards Touya, while he grabbed the go-ke with black stones for himself.

'Now... Let's play.'

"Please."

A rather sad smile grazed Hikaru's lips as he thought about Sai... the Sai of his own world.

'Sai.. Are you watching?'

First stone...

The upper right kosumi.

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It wasn't a slaughter... No, it was something... much stranger than that.

To least to Hikaru it was. To Touya Akira, who was currently sitting on the opposite side, the word 'slaughter' would probably have summed up the entire game perfectly for him.

All the spectators of the game felt the tension that was tantamount to watching a match between two pros. They awed over each stone placed by the different party, gasped when the traps were sprung, frowned when they thought the players had made a mistake. They were drawn into the game itself, staring at the twisting and turning, merging shape that took a death-grip type of hold on their minds.

It had been like watching a title match.

And in perhaps more ways than one, that was somehow true.

To Hikaru, it just had been... odd. This Touya Akira hadn't developed foresight ability as much yet, and he had been tricked by Hikaru's subtler moves. Hikaru had first controlled the corners, then slowly gaining a territorial hold at the sides, eventually spreading his influence to the middle of the goban. In mid-game, Touya Akira bowed and admitted defeat.

Hikaru had half-expected that. What he didn't expect was how utterly... crushed he had looked when he lost, as if he had been told he could never play Go again. He even thought he saw tears falling, but... that couldn't be possible could it?

During the game, there was only once when Touya Akira had looked up from the goban. He had glared at Hikaru with a burning intensity that would have unsettled anyone to see such seriousness on a young boy's face...

This Hikaru was used to it. If he had been the Touya Akira of his world, Hikaru would probably have glared back. This time however, he merely met his eyes and held it there. Until it was broken when a patron knocked against a goban, causing a loud clack to resonate around the Go salon in the unnatural silence as a white go stone fell.

"Touya... You played well."

As he had expected, the counterpart of his rival did not look up. Most of the spectators looked concerned, while others were slightly stunned.

And Hikaru left the Go salon without another word. He didn't bid farewell, didn't even look back as he left the Go salon.

After all, he had a feeling he would be seeing Touya Akira again.

That was usually how kami works.

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"Sorry I'm late, Daisuke!"

Without looking up from the food in front of him, Daisuke waved his left hand that was not currently occupied with eating.

"Takoyaki?" Hikaru made a face. "Ramen's much better!"

"So this is takoyaki?" Sai asked curiously.

Daisuke swallowed three takoyaki balls at once, and then looked at Sai and Hikaru in a slightly challenging manner.

"Takoyaki is the most delicious food in the world!"

Hikaru just shook his head while Sai continued to look mildly confused again.

The street was as busy as ever despite the growing darkness of the sky. Pale reddish glow from the sunset made everything seemed rather surreal, blurring the lines between reality and fantasy. The trio walked along the pavement, with Hikaru leading the way. Occasionally, brief conversations from solemn adults and chattering from easily excitable teenagers would reach Hikaru's ears, before fading away to nothing, passing through his brains like mere meaningless jumbles of words.

"Nii-chan? That isn't the way home..."

A wide grin broke across Hikaru's face.

"Don't you remember, Sai?"

Looking more perplexed than before, Sai tilted his head to the right. A silent and unofficial 'huh?' hung in the air.

"Oh well... Since you don't remember, let's go home then. And here I was thinking you'd be excited to be shown a place where you can play as much go as possible." Hikaru said flippantly, before turning to walk to the train stations.

A look of dawning realization was quickly replaced by one of horror.

"Noooo! Hikaru! Take me there! I want to play Go!" Sai whined, forcefully shaking Hikaru to within an inch of his life and generally attracting curious onlookers seeing a boy shaking like a leaf.

"Fine! Hey, I said FINE! STOP SHAKING ME!"

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It didn't take them long to arrive at the Internet Cafe, and neither did it long for them to pay and got themselves a computer. Of course, there was some trouble at first as the cashier thought that they were trying to get away with paying one person's cost while hogging two computers. However, after some explanation, the irritable cashier merely waved them off and threatened half-heartedly that they had better not be lying.

"Ne, ne, Hikaru! Can we really play Go in this box? Are there really people inside? How are we going to play? Ne, Hikaru? Hikaru!"

Hikaru mostly ignored Sai's excited blabbering. He suspected that Sai wasn't exactly interested in knowing how a computer worked anyway.

"That's great, nii-chan! So now every day after school, we can come here and let Sai play people from all over the world!" Hikaru said enthusiastically.

"Yeah. If we save enough, we could even pay for two computers. One for each of us to use." Hikaru replied as he typed in the user-name for a Go account.

_S-A-I_

Grinning as the account was made, Hikaru asked.

"So... Who'd you like to play first, Sai?"

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After realizing with horror that it was past seven in the evening, Hikaru and Daisuke dashed home in record time, accidentally startling three cats and two dogs, and one turtle on their way.

Entirely worried out of her mind, their mother, astonishingly, did not scold them when they stepped into the house, looking guilty. Even Sai had his head bowed, apologising profusely to Daisuke and Hikaru's mother despite knowing that she couldn't hear him.

Their father however, was another matter.

They had to endure an hour of lecture on how irresponsible they had been and a stern warning never to stay out so late without informing them again. Their allowances had been cut to half for the week.

Therefore, it was a subdued trio that entered the Shindou twins' bedroom.

With mumbled 'good night's, Hikaru and Daisuke drifted off the dreamlands.

And somehow, a routine emerged. On the days they didn't have to stay back late in school, they would go to the Internet Cafe and allow Sai to indulge playing his favourite pastime – which was playing Go, naturally. On days that they did have to stay back in school for one thing or another, Sai wasn't exactly bored either, since they would take turns with playing Go with Sai when they returned home. Their cut on allowance was finally lifted up when Hiakru proudly brought back a History and Mathematics test paper proclaiming a perfect sixty eight and sixty five percent respectively. Therefore, combined with a bit of careful planning, they sad saved up enough money to rent two computers.

And so, it was organised that Hikaru would use one of the computer for an hour, then switch with Daisuke, who would be playing Internet Go for Sai at that time.

Being overly excited as usual, Sai began directing Daisuke where to place the stones as soon as the game screen showing the goban was shown. Hikaru sat down on the rolling chair and faced the computer with a determined look on his face.

To tell the truth, Hikaru had an ulterior motive for going to the Internet cafe other than letting Sai play Go. He wanted to find out if it was possible to return to his own world.

Of course, that was easier said than done. He once thought of going back to Shuusaku's grave and somehow... replicate the conditions that got him into this strange situation. However, the ground wouldn't move on demand, and rain didn't just come because he wanted it to.

Hikaru also didn't care to repeat having his head nearly being cracked opened by the stone grave. Once was enough. Thus, it was set that he needed to find out more information...

And if one wanted to do research, where else could one find the information one needed but the great World Wide Web?

Currently, he was staring uncertainly at the screen showing a website in front of him. Hikaru frowned slightly in concentration. For the past one minute, that was all that he had been doing – staring, that is. He kept feeling a tingling sensation in his right hand to just clench his fist and smash it onto the computer in front of him.

Why was everything in English?!

And what the hell was 'the decay or rapid vanishing of the off-diagonal elements of the partial trace of the joint system's density matrix'?!

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"Oh, Hikaru and Daisuke! You're early!"

Waving excitedly, Hikaru and Daisuke both bore the same Cheshire cat grin on their faces upon seeing Akari. Although the meeting was planned at two o'clock, Sai had wanted to play Go, and so they left their houses in the morning for the Internet Cafe. By now, the Cafe cashier was quite familiar with the twins. On some days when the Internet Cafe owner wasn't in, she would even let the use the computer for free.

Today was one such occasion. An opponent (with a user name which somehow had nagged at the corner of Hikaru's mind) had challenged Sai the moment he had logged on and Sai had happily accepted. Approximately an hour later, the opponent admitted defeat. Just as they were about to leave however, a message that set off alarm bells ringing in Hikaru's head appeared on the screen.

_Who are you? I'm an Insei!_

Although Hikaru wasn't as fluent in English as he would have liked to be, he at least, could recognise and read the simpler terms.

'Uh... That was Waya...?'

Staring at the message, Hikaru stood rooted to the ground for a moment, before snapping out of it.

"So Sai, what do you want to say to him?" Hikaru turned around.

Sai looked startled for a moment (they have never replied to anyone's message before), before smiling and saying, "Ano... Please tell him that he is indeed strong and I enjoyed playing with him very much. However, the defence of black could be better. For example 12-5..."

Unknown to the group, with that one message, they had left Waya stunned, baffled and even more eager to know who Sai was. The three, without anything else to do, proceeded to the meeting place to meet up with their friends.

"Only the three of us here?" Hikaru made a noise of disappointment.

"Well... We're nearly half an hour early you know," Akari pointed out wisely.

And so for the next thirty minutes, Akari bombarded the twins with inane questions on Daisuke's health, their whereabouts for most of the time, and even more inane conversation topics such as the upcoming exams.

Lastly, she exclaimed.

"You two are being weird these days!"

"Yo, people!" A voice called off from a distance.

Finally, the rest of the group had arrived, and any reply which the twins would have made to that statement was lost in fantasy world create by arcades.

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She didn't know how... or why... or when it happened...

But Hikaru had changed.

He acted the same as before. In fact, he _was_ still Hikaru, the boy who would joke at everything, be abysmal in most of his studies and both annoyed and worried her, sometimes even at the same time. However, there was just something different about him (the airs around him, maybe?), something she couldn't quite put her finger on.

That revelation, somehow, made her a little sad... why hadn't she noticed...?

On the other hand... Daisuke seemed... happier. Less lonely somehow. And that chased away any sadness she had.

People changed, didn't they?

Rather than walk in the middle of them, like she usually did, this time she slowed her pace so that they were slightly in front of her. They didn't notice much about that, so lost in their playful banters.

'Hikaru... you've changed, haven't you? You're not really the Hikaru I knew any more...' Her thoughts trailed off.

And somehow, Akari felt a pang at the spot where her heart was. Just a little.

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A/N: Judging by 's new feature 'reader's traffic', I have readers from all over the world! (52 different countries last counted. Some of them I had to look up some of them on the map.) Awesome! Though I kind of feel intimidated and pressurised now... Hope I don't disappoint anyone...

And as a last note... Review~


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Please. Do feel free to throw a few fireballs and lightning bolts in my general direction when you find eye-stinging grammar atrocities being committed (I'd just dodge them anyway). Though I can assure you, they weren't there by my intention. Here you are, Chapter 8.

Disclaimer:

Because a coin has two sides, one of heads and one of tails.

Because the sky presents two images, day and night.

Because emotions has two meanings, love and hate.

Therefore with every truth...

...There is a lie.

Ao Yuki does not own Hikaru no Go. And that is the whole truth.

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**Chapter 8**

_Hikaru... Please...Wake up, Hikaru..._

A soft female voice laced with desperation called out amongst the inky blackness that was Hikaru's mind.

_Hikaru... Hikaru... Please... Hikaru... Hikaru..._

'Huh...? Wha...? Who...is calling me...?' Confusion was his predominant feeling. Underlying that was a sense of familiarity.

_Hikaru... Hikaru... Hikaru... Hikaru..._

Voices continued to echo and bounce around his head – some louder than the others, some barely heard, and all repeating his name. Until slowly... gradually... everything melted away, fading into nothing...

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Weak beams of sunlight filtered through the thin gauze covering the window and fell lazily on a boy's sleeping form. Stirring lightly from his sleep, the said boy's eyelids then flickered opened.

With a small yawn, Hikaru sat up on his bed and rubbed his eyes blearily, his head feeling strangely very heavy. He heaved his legs out of the bed, (and momentarily winced from the iciness of floor), before sliding his feet neatly into the bedroom slippers. Almost immediately, his gaze fell on the only incorporeal occupant of the room – Sai.

Sai was seated in the traditional seiza position beside the goban, his eyes fixed on the squares on the board with a slightly forlorn expression on his face. Hikaru watched, as Sai gently brushed a finger over the spot where the blood and tear stains were, and then quickly retracted his fingers, as if afraid that his actions might wipe away the proof of his existence, the feeble thread that bound him to the mortal plane.

It made Hikaru feel… weird.

A few seconds passed, when Hikaru was scarcely breathing. Sai was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn't notice that Hikaru was awake. Unable to stand the silence in the room, and yet finding that he didn't want to wake Daisuke up, he whispered.

"Sai?"

Hikaru found himself wondering if ghosts could sprain their necks too. He swore he heard a crack when Sai turned his head.

"Oh, Hikaru is awake!" Sai exclaimed with a wide grin, his eyes lighting up. The question that followed was unsurprising.

"Can we play Go now?"

Blinking at Sai's expectant face, Hikaru turned away and looked out of the window, feeling oddly disconcerted.

"Nah. I just woke up you know. Maybe later..." Was his mumbled reply. At that particular moment, everything around him felt eerily unreal, lacking in depth, as if he was looking at things from faraway while detached from his own mental processes...

A feminine loud scream one floor downstairs caused reality to come crashing back down on him.

"What the..." Leaping up from his bed, Hikaru tore open the door and dashed down the stairs as fast as he could the moment he recognised the scream as Akari's.

The sight that greeted him as he burgeoned into the living room was of pure incredulity. Akari was standing on the sofa, her hands gripping the telephone tightly, with its wires dangling uselessly at the side.

"What are you do-?"

Before Hikaru could finished asking his questions, Akari let out another scream again and then threw the telephone down. Hikaru winced at the loud 'crunch' the telephone made as it hit the floor. His mother was not going to be happy about it.

And then he saw the smashed lamp beside the telephone. Yep, definitely not happy.

"Hikaru! Kill them! KILL THEM NOW!" Akari's hysterical shrieks broke Hikaru out of his reverie to look at where Akari was jabbing her fingers towards.

Several cockroaches– big and small scurried randomly around the living room. With a slackened jaw, Hikaru wondered how he could have missed them in the first place, before quickly jumping into action. He flew out of the living room and into the kitchen to grab the can of pesticide in the bottom cabinet, and then burst back into the living room. Vaguely, he took note that Sai was trying his best to calm Akari down by flapping his sleeves around her frantically (to no avail, as one would expect).

Weaving through the furniture with the skills of a baboon wielding a sword, Hikaru grabbed hold of a random phone book on the desk, and together with the pesticide, began spraying and hitting any cockroaches his eyes lay on.

"HYAAA!" Was his trademark battle-cry.

"KILL THEM!" Was Akari's.

"WAAAH! CAAAALM DOOOWN!" Sai's voice rang throughout the entire household.

So it was only to be expected, that the moment Daisuke appeared at the bottom of the stairs rubbing his eyes sleepily, the door leading outside swung open and Shindou Mitsuko entered the house. With a deep crease between her eyebrows, and several colourful plastic bags held in her hands, the mother of the Shindou twins asked:

"What's going on here?"

One daring cockroach chose that moment to scurry towards the door, seeking freedom from its eventual death. Unfortunately on its way out, it ran across the foot of one Shindou Mitsuko.

A horrifying scream tore its way out of her throat, and pandemonium started again.

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Despite the differences in the atmosphere, the culture, the grades, the social, economics and environment, there is one particular sound that students all over the world agree is the best sound ever: School bells signalling the end of school.

The moment the minute hand struck twelve, the customary 'ring' of the school bell sounded. It was remarkable how quickly the students changed.

As if light bulbs were switched on at the back of their eyeballs, all of their eyes abruptly seemed to possess an inner glow that threatened to dazzle whoever that came too near. The dead came alive as if they haven't been dead before, looking in fact, livelier than a hungry puppy placed in front of a whole mountain of dog food. Smiles appeared on everyone's faces, pupils sat straighter, heads were all off the table, eyes focused on the teacher's mouth, ears perked up in anticipation, etcetera.

Hikaru was no exception. His ears were listening intently for one word and one word only – dismissed.

The moment that exact word passed out of the teacher's mouth, it was like there was a sudden volcanic eruption amongst the pupils. Voices broke out in excited chatters as students discussed the latest gossips, chairs dragged backwards with loud screeches as few stood up to leave. Generally, various activities, of which most of them consist of making a lot of noise, were carried out. A few students, clearly in the rush for something, dashed out of the classroom even before the teacher did. Not that it fazed the teacher in the least.

"Freedom at last!" Hikaru proclaimed with feeling as he raised his interlocked hands in a stretch, feeling his neck muscle's protest and a few bones creaking.

"Yep, nii-chan!" Daisuke's cheerful voice sounded behind him.

Even Sai looked happier to know that school had ended.

"That is wonderful! What are we going to do now?"

Hikaru let out several sounds of contemplations as he thought about Sai's question. Playing Go at the internet café came to mind immediately, followed by playing Go at home, or playing Go in a Go salon...

'Wow. What a wide range of selections.' Hikaru thought sarcastically. It wasn't that he didn't like playing Go (more like obsessed with Go), but at that moment in time, he just felt like doing something different for once...

"I think we should take a break from playing Go, don't you Daisuke? Let's do something else today." He nodded his head and turned looked at Sai's reaction, hazarding a guess that Sai would burst out in protest or strangle him for even suggesting they don't play Go.

To his utter amazement and shock, Sai did not let out any sound of protest. None. Not even a sad look. Instead, he was looking eagerly between the two brothers and nodding his head vigorously.

"Okay! So where are we going?" A pause was injected in, as both Shindou brothers seemed rather busy taking in the fact that Sai didn't even mention the word 'Go' once. "Oh I know! Can we go to the music shop that Daisuke went to that day? The one with the pi-a-no in it."

Still slightly befuddled at Sai's reaction, but willing to go to wherever the music shop was at, Hikaru looked at Daisuke to see if he agreed.

The other twin had a small frown on his face, as if trying his best to recall something in the depths of his memory bank. Without any warning other than the abrupt grin on his face, he dived towards his bag and began digging into it with fervour. With his head in his bag, Hikaru appeared to be a headless boy fighting a battle with his monstrous bag that had suddenly gone crazy.

"Uh... Daisuke...?" A tentative Hikaru began. "What are you doing?"

Bursting out of the bag, Hikaru's grin widened further and he held up the object that he was searching for: a very crumpled pamphlet that had definitely seen better days.

"See, nii-chan? It's today!" Daisuke exclaimed.

"Huh...?"

Hikaru gingerly took hold of the pamphlet being offered to him. Looking back at him was a very familiar piece of paper stating the Nation Children's Go Tournament was being held that day. A flash of memory rushed into his brain, where he had attended this similar event in an entirely different world.

He briefly wondered what would have happened if he didn't open my mouth that day.

"Hmm... If we rush, I think we might still be able to see half the games..." he trailed off.

"Really?! Can we go, Hikaru? Can we? Can we?" Sai's eyes were shining with excitement and his love for anything to do with Go was practically rolling off him in waves.

"But I thought we aren't going to do anything related to Go today?" Daisuke asked.

Sai visibly deflated. The shine in his eyes disappeared and suddenly, he transformed from a hyper child to sullen teenager who had just been told he couldn't have the newest video game.

"But... but..." he said in a small voice.

At that moment, both Hikaru and Daisuke burst out laughing.

"Just kidding, Sai! We're going to the tournament!" The Shindou twin chorused.

Another 180 degrees change came over Sai, as he clapped his hands together and beamed a 100-watt smile.

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Silence reigned in the Touya household. Other than the gentle whirring of the heater hard at work, only the occasional soft 'pachi' of go stones could be heard. In a room somewhere in the house, a young boy sat alone facing two gobans. Under the bright light shining down from the ceiling, one could almost mistake the circle of light reflected off his hair to be a halo.

Being the son of the illustrious Touya-Meijin, Touya Akira was a Go prodigy that was otherwise known as 'Leader of the Next Go Generation' in the Go world. Despite his young age, his skills and ability in Go was no less than any lower ranked professional. Why he did not participate in the pro exam that year was a mystery to everyone. After all, rumour had it that he had been holding Go stone even before he learned to walk.

Whatever the reason, only Akira and his father knew.

As if entranced by the two games laid out nicely in front of him, Akira's eyelids failed to fall for a whole minute. In fact, if one didn't observe carefully, one could have easily mistaken the young boy as a statue.

'How similar... but so different as well. But how can a person have two types of playing styles? It's just not possible. Yet, here it is.'

Perplexed, Akira frowned, an expression strangely not that out of place on his youthful face. He contemplated about the game on his left, the one he first played with _him_, then shifted his attention to the game on his right, the second and last game he had with the other boy. No matter how many times he recreated the game and studied them, (And believe it, he did study them. Nearly obsessively so) he failed to find the answers to his questions.

'Who is this 'Shindou'?'

Abruptly, there was a soft knock, and the door to his room slid opened, revealing an imposing man wearing a traditional Hakama.

Akira stood up immediately.

"Father," he greeted absent-mindedly, "Is anything the matter?"

"It's dinner time," the older man said simply.

Akira hesitated for a moment, his eyes almost unwillingly trailing back towards the two games again. That moment was enough for his father to spot them as well.

His father's eyes sharpened. With a barely perceivable sigh, Touya Kyoyo stated firmly.

"Akira, I do not want you to be so obsessive over these two games any more. It has been a week, and your mother is getting worried. You no longer play Go. Everyday after school, I see you lock yourself in your room just to study these two games. That is... not good for your health. If this boy is as strong as you said he is, then he will surely appear in the Go world soon."

Akira cast his eyes downwards, staring guiltily at his feet. He knew that he had not been fulfilling his duties as a son lately, worrying his mother and even his father. But there was just something compelling about the two games played by the same, yet different person. He just couldn't seem to concentrate on any other things with the two games swirling around his mind nearly all the time. Without the answers to his questions, he doubted he would ever have a peace of mind again.

When he had merely just started playing Go, he had already surpassed many people twice his ages, who played Go twice or thrice as long as he had. There seemed to be something in him maybe, that made him just so talented in playing that particular game. No one of his age had ever defeated him before. And now, he had been beaten twice, by the same person no less. Was it so surprising then, that he wanted... no, _needed_, to know who the one that had defeated him was?

Softening his tone as if he had read his thoughts, Touya Kyoyo placed a hand on his son's shoulder and nodded his head.

"Now, let's not make your mother wait any more. She prepared many of your favourite dishes today."

"Yes, father." Akira switched off the light and stepped out of the room, determined not to think anything about 'Shindou' for the rest of the the day.. or rather, night.

Together, father and son strode towards the dining room.

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The moment the trio stepped (one floated) into the hall, they were greeted by horde of mingling people. Most of the seated ones were children (the participants). But the sheer number of anxious parents crowding around could give the number of children a run for their money. Kids appearing to be maybe half of Hikaru and Daisuke's age sat facing each other across a table with a goban on it. All of them shared the same solemn look on their faces. Some were clearly on the losing end, as they were displaying symptoms of nervousness such as chewing on their lips or agitatedly clenching their fist.

"Wow..." Daisuke breathed out.

Hikaru just nodded.

"So many children..." Sai breathed out wistfully. "This makes me feel so happy, Hikaru... These children have the same passion that I have since a thousand years ago. They are telling me that things will still be the same..."

"...A thousand years from now." Sai smiled warmly at the room full of children.

Indeed, as long as a pair of Go players still lives, Go would undoubtedly live on, far into the future. On the go board, people meet as equals, with no barrier of status or power. And even the emperor had to lose to a better player. It was a game few knew about. But for those who did have knowledge of it, they would enjoy it till the end of their days.

"Oh look! On the board in the upper left corner, if black isn't careful, he'll die."

Both Hikaru and Daisuke turned to see where Sai was pointing with his fan at.

"1-2 is where he needs to place his stones," Sai declared with confidence.

Right at the moment, the said player placed his black go stone on 1-3, one place away from the place he should have gone for instead.

Instinctively, Hikaru tensed for a moment, as a passing memory of him getting chased out of the hall due to him shouting out what Sai had said zoomed into his mind. However, since he said nothing...

... Nothing like he remembered happened, and white continued to place his stones. Letting go of a breath he didn't know he had been holding, Hikaru sighed and turned to Daisuke. Just as he was about to ask if Daisuke wanted to go home, something unexpected did happen, showing that something (or someone) was pulling the strings behind scenes somewhere.

One second, there was only the ever golden silence. The next second, the cheerful theme song of 'Doraemon' burst out from Hikaru's pocket, reverberating around the once-silent hall.

No one moved a muscle. It was as if time itself had chosen that specific moment to stop. And as if in slow motion, Hikaru cast a horrified look at the traitor-hand phone in his pocket, before digging his hand in to try and stop its ringing.

Many of the participants, distracted by the song, looked up to see where it was coming from. Some though, were still focusing on the goban in front of them, obviously in their own world.

Suddenly, the strange magic spell was broken. Everyone near Hikaru threw dirty looks towards him, and whispered among themselves, creating a buzzing noise.

Fumbling desperately for his hand phone, Hikaru didn't notice a furious man stalking towards him. The moment his hand phone was out of his pocket, Hikaru winced at the noticeable louder 'Doraemon' song and pressed the 'ignore' button. His racing heart finally slowed down when the cheerful song was abruptly cut off.

Suddenly, an angry voice shouted, "HEY YOU!" behind Hikaru. Milliseconds later, a hand landed on his shoulder, scaring the daylights out of him. His hand phone would have dropped onto the floor if Daisuke hadn't caught it just in time.

"What were you thinking?! Bringing in your hand phone and interrupting the whole match! Didn't you know you were supposed to switch it off before coming in the hall?!" The man wearing a suit scolded in an enraged hiss.

Before Hikaru could do more than turning redder than an tomato and blurting out a 'I'm sorry..!', the crowd parted to allow another person to enter the scene.

"Calm down, Mori-san," A deeper voice said lightly.

The moment Hikaru's eyes landed on the newcomer, they widened. Idly, he wondered if he should just grab Daisuke and make a run for it.

'Have I accidentally swallowed the bad luck potion this morning or something?'

Ogata's menacing glint in his eyes was enough to send a cold chill down anyone's spine after all.

Unfortunately, Hikaru couldn't run even if he wanted to (which though very tempting, would definitely make the situation worse), since 'Mori-san' had kindly grabbed hold of his collar. Even Daisuke had not been spared, being seen as the partner-in-crime.

"Ogata-sensei, I'm taking him to the back." 'Mori-san' gave Hikaru a withering stare.

"Thank you," came the polite reply.

As Hikaru and Daisuke were dragged away with Sai trailing sadly behind them, Hikaru groaned internally.

'Why must these things always happen to me?'

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Sweating slightly due to the pressure and embarrassment, Hikaru laughed nervously as he apologized profusely to the people in charge of the tournament.

At first, the crossed looks on their faces sent Hikaru in a panic as he wondered if they were going to call his mother. Sure, his mother would _probably_ not scold him, but she would certainly ground him for days.

And who knew what sort of strange punishment his father might dish out at him. He might even make him translate the whole 'Peter pan' book from English to Japanese again.

After a few minutes of both Shindou twin's sincere and heart-felt apologies, the anger faded to annoyance, then exasperation. Both of them endured another few minutes of lecture, before they were finally dismissed from the room containing several very hostile people.

Who, judging by the looks on their faces, wanted to give them a sound spanking, before violently sweeping them out of the institution with a broom.

"Nii chan..." Daisuke held out the hand phone. "I think that was mom who called. She won't be happy that you hung up on her..."

A half-hearted glare towards his hand phone told him that yes, it was indeed their mother who had called. Throwing another dark look at the offending hand phone, he stuffed it n his pocket again, and gave an enormous sigh.

"I feel bad for all those kids..." Sai lamented as he pushed his fingers together in a gesture of abashment.

Even Hikaru felt bad. He knew how difficult it was to focus again once a person had been distracted from the game. Causing a whole hall of children lost their concentration was really something that he couldn't forgive himself just yet.

"I know... I know... That was really bad... But it's not like I asked the hand phone to ring at that time..." Hikaru muttered gloomily.

"Well, let's go then. Before mom calls again," Hikaru said. He faced a corner of the room and began walking towards it. Steps before actually reaching it, Hikaru began yawning.

As if on cue, Hikaru stopped in mid-yawn all of a sudden when he bumped into someone. Daisuke paused just around the corner, looking in surprise at the man that his older brother had bumped into.

Someone else was staring in shock at them.

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A/N: Has anyone ever read 30k+ words of a fanfic, only to abandon it because you lost interest? Yes, that's what happened to me. I read till 12 chapters of a particular fanfic, before I became bored.

Hope that won't happen to this fanfic.

And... has anyone noticed that the chapters are getting longer and longer?

In any case, Chapter 9 ought to be updated in about a month... or maybe two... -crosses finger-

-coughsreviewscoughs-


	9. Chapter 9

A/N:This chapter was one of the most taxing one, since I typed this in the midst of my exam.

Disclaimer: 'It' laid unassumingly on the wall, watching the countless pupils walk by. Some were as tall as 'it', blocking it's view; Some were short, allowing 'it' a full view as 'it' towered over them.

More often than not, they were noisier than a chicken farm with thousand chickens clucking away.

'It' would sigh if it could. But it could not. Such, was a life of a portrait.

But even the portrait knew...

That Ao Yuki does not own Hikaru no Go.

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**Chapter 9**

Touya Akira stared at the two people in front of him in shock.

He hadn't quite expected to see the person he had just resolved _not_ to think about. When he agreed to go with his father to witness the National Children's Tournament, all he wanted at that time was to escape from the Go salon. He wanted his to stop his photographic memory from recounting yet again the two incidents where 'Shindou' had appeared before him. All he wanted was to have some sort of the peace that he used to have. Even if it was for a few moments.

But that was not to be, apparently. Because of all times, Shindou chose appear right in front of him literally and not merely mentally this time.

Momentarily, he felt slightly unbalanced. Anyone would be, at the sight of the two identical face – the face that haunted his every living moments these few days. He could feel his eyes snapping between the two boys, his mind suspiciously blank at the sight, before his mind finally processed what he was seeing.

Ah. Twins. Of course.

Twins would have different playing styles, since they had essentially different personalities. Yet their styles would be similar in some aspects due to their similar thought processes.

And unknowingly, Touya Akira had played both of them.

He should have known from the start that he had been playing with two entirely different people. After so many days of puzzling, the answer was now staring right in front of him. He had, at first, thought that the boy he was playing with had schizophrenia. After all, it just wasn't possible for a person to have such a drastic change in their playing style in mere minutes.

It was quite eerie when he thought about it. Even when placed side by side together, where one can really look and compare, Touya found that the two boys were so identical that he couldn't spot much of a difference between them. One simply had bangs with a lighter shade of orange, while the other had bangs with a darker shade.

Sure, they were twins. But even so, how could they look like the exact carbon copy of each other? It baffled his mind.

"Ano... I'm... I'm sorry for not looking at where I was going..."

The boy that had bumped into his father apologised tentatively as he scrambled up from the floor. Touya found himself wanting to apologise on his father's behalf. He was still mentally processing the fact that instead of having _one_ Go genius in the world, there was actually _two_ of them. And they were twins, too.

"Sorry," the boy picked himself up and dusted himself.

"Daisuke, let's go."

Without even a glance at him, the twin with the lighter coloured bangs proceeded to moved toward the exit, before Touya even got a chance to open his mouth.

Daisuke casted an awkward look at his father and him, before bowing hastily and following his brother.

"Nii-chan! Wait for me~~!"

Touya's eyes were stuck onto their retreating form, as they nearly ran out of the institution. The older sibling's back almost seemed to growl and say 'don't you dare stop me!'. As abruptly as they had come, they left.

And he just stood there. Like a wooden block. There, was a perfectly good chance to ask for a match (or even their names), and he threw it away by staring at them in shock.

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Hikaru didn't know what came over him.

The moment his eyes fell on Touya Akira's face there was a strange, overwhelming sense of loss.

It struck him then, that the Touya Akira in this world wasn't his rival and best friend.

They were essentially the same person, he argued to himself. He's just younger by a few years. Hardly any difference, really.

But he couldn't convince himself of that.

He didn't know how he got to this dimension and he didn't feel like he belonged here.

It was strange that every time he looked in the mirror, he saw himself as a twelve year old again. Every time he wanted to ask Sai something, he had to make sure that he didn't say anything weird. He didn't feel as close to this world's Sai as he wanted it to be. This world's Sai didn't know the pains that he had gone through to change from loving soccer to loving Go. This world's Sai… almost seemed too happy.

Hikaru didn't even know what he was doing. Why, after so much time since he had passed since he'd woken up in this world that he started resenting it?

Sure. Nearly seven years of his life had vanished as if they were soap bubbles, as if he had never lived them before.

But so what? He would get to live them again, wouldn't he? And this time, he would live them _better_. With Sai by his side, Daisuke, and his family. He just had to make the effort to go make friends with the people he knew again and everything. Would. Be. Fine.

No.

Somehow. It just wasn't bloody fine.

He wanted to see his real family again. He wanted to see Waya, Akari, Isumi, Saeki, Akira…He didn't feel as if he could attain the hand of god with this world's Touya Akira.

"Nii... chan...?" Daisuke asked softly.

The sight of Daisuke with Sai standing next to him, made his throat tightened.

Daisuke belonged to his world. Sai belonged to Daisuke here.

The Touya Akira of this world belonged to Daisuke.

He opened his mouth to say something. Then stopped himself.

"Go home with Sai, Daisuke. I've got something else to do. Tell mom I'll be late home."

"But..."

"Go on. Go home." Hikaru said with a forced smile on his face. "I'm fine, really."

Daisuke kept silent, his eyes trained on his face. He nodded and turned to leave.

Hikaru walked away without turning his back. His sight of reality blurred at the edge before shifting back again.

He blinked the film of water away and continued walking.

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Hikaru clicked the mouth, his eyes sweeping across the virtual goban in front of him.

He wanted to go to the arcade at first. It was where he usually go to calm down, even if he didn't actually played anything. The noise alone was enough to make him focus.

But when he passed by the Internet Cafe, he couldn't help himself. He went in instead.

Go was as good as arcade in calming him down.

The cashier greeted him cheerfully (which made Hikaru raise his eyebrows, because he had never seen her that happy before), and told him with a wink that he could use the computer for as long as he wanted to, since the boss wasn't in.

Giving a nod to state that he understood, Hikaru chose a random terminal, and logged on to the Go Server.

He had his own penname of course, called 'Tengen'. He got his fair share of challenges of course. But nothing that really interested him. There were a few messages, asking him who is was and whether he was a pro.

He ignored them.

Out of sheer curiosity, he logged on as Sai

And was bombarded with challenges and messages, all demanding to know who exactly he was.

Hikaru was stared with wide eyes.

There was at least three times as many more challenges and messages than his own account!

Although to be fair, he did try to give himself handicaps when he was playing against the people on the internet. No need to utterly crush them after all.

But Sai apparently hadn't.

Perhaps he didn't think that the 'people in the box with the strange lights' were real and so his usual Go ethics didn't apply.

Perhaps he just wanted to have fun.

Who knows?

Somehow, the word had spread around the internet.

Curiosity still itching, Hikaru began to look through the challenges, declining those that he recognised having played before.

And just for a heck of it, he accepted someone who called himself 'so_spectacles'.

With his eyes closed, he took a deep breath in, and let it out.

He would go home once he finished this game. He was being ridiculous. It didn't matter that he wasn't technically born here, or that he had unwittingly regressed physically to being 12 again. He _would_ live this life better and attain the hand of god, even if he had to do it alone.

And right now, he had a game to play.

Giving the game his fullest attention, Hikaru pounded began the game, fully intending to trash the 'so_spectacles' guy. Or gal. He wasn't being sexist here. He would make sure that the game lasted no more than 30 minutes.

He had dinner to go home for, after all.

One hour later, Hikaru found himself glaring at the screen, his hands clenching and unclenching from staying in the same position for too long.

This 'so_spectacles' person? He wasn't easy to beat.

And he had a familiar style of playing that, if he could only stop to think about it, he thought that he could almost recognise.

Hikaru moved the arrow and clicked.

'so_spectacles' responded quicker than he expected.

Another hour passed. The other patrons of the internet Café slowly left around him, the street lamps turning on one by one. Occasionally, there was the sound of laughter or chatters as someone passed by.

None of them took much notice of the boy who was, despite the fact that it was at night, still playing a board game on the internet.

Finally, there was a loud 'beep' that signified the end of the game.

Hikaru collapsed against his chair. He stared at the ceiling, and let out a small sigh.

Yeah right. Of all the challenges to accept, he just had to accept the one that gave him so much damn trouble to win. And now he was not only just late for dinner, his parents were probably going to murder him once he returned home.

"Oh, are you done? Just in time! The Cafe is closing for the night..." A voice behind him made Hikaru jump slightly.

"Huh? Oh. Yeah. I'm done..." Hikaru's eyes were on the computer screen as he shut it down. "Thank you... And sorry to trouble you."

"Hm? No problem. Though... where's your brother? You usually come with him..."

"He... He had something on." Hikaru replied sheepishly.

"Ah... I see. In any case, I hope that you had fun " The cashier teasingly. "Now scram!" She said in a playful tease.

Still wondering what had gotten into her, Hikaru shook his head and left the Cafe, mentally and physically drained from the game.

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All over the Earth in the world of net Go, a storm of skeptics and awe was brewing. Sai, who had so far defeated all players that dared to challenge him, was the source of many speculations.

Especially when it was rumoured that he had played a Go profession and actually _won_.

Was Sai himself a Go professional player? The people asked.

That was much doubtful, as no decent Go pro would stoop down to playing mere amateurs on the internet constantly.

Was Sai a child with too much free time on hand then? That theory was rejected as fast as it was thought up of, since no mere child could be that strong of a Go player.

Could Sai then, be a retired Go pro? Many wondered at this, as it was a feasible explanation. But then again, no one remembered the existence of such a magnificent Go pro, save for Hoinbou Shuusaku. And he was dead long ago.

Then there were the people who insisted that Sai was the god of Go; those people, if they were lucky, usually got a raised eyebrow. Or, if they were unlucky, badly suppressed laughter.

Then there were others who proclaimed that Sai was the demon of Go. _That_ particular theory sent a shiver down many Go pros' spine.

A few people tried to track down the mysterious Sai through his email. With no success, as email addresses were as easy to get as free air. Many sent private messages to Sai, some borderline from outright rude, to ask for another match. None got any response. Even though a few boasted that they did, just to get attention. But it was quickly established that Sai did not respond to anyone. Not to pleas, or to insults.

However, theories after all, were just that. Theories. No one knew, or even suspected the real truth. Which was that Sai was a ghost, who played Go through a child's hand. And occasionally, an accidental dimensiona traveller who was once taught by the same but different ghost.

It grated on their nerves and humbled many proud Go pro, to be beaten by who seemed to be an amateur player that had too much time on hand.

Everyone wanted to know 'who?'

But would they ever get their answer?

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Things mostly went back to normal after the surprising meeting with Touya Akira.

His parents, as expected, kicked up a fuss about him returning late. And Hikaru just took it without saying a word.

His allowance was cut. Again.

Daisuke seemed to be quieter than usual. Hikaru tried cheering him up the best that he could. He knew that Daisuke wasn't _really_ his brother and this world's Sai wasn't _really_ his Sai, but he still didn't want to see them be all sad because he was.

School, to his extreme annoyance, gave him more of a headache than his accidental world hopping problem.

"Sheesh. Another Math test! All those numbers are going to kill me one day!" Hikaru complained rather loudly as the class representative gave out the test papers. That earned him a disapproving look from the teacher and some murmurs of agreement from the general student body.

Once the teacher announced the commencement of the paper (to be ended in one hour), Hikaru decided that he really couldn't do anther math paper. Lying his head on the table, Hikaru proceeded to perfect the fine arts of sleeping...

_The familiar 'overly-clean' smell of the detergent that every hospital fancied..._

"_...wake up? Do ...worried... are? You're...stupid... stubborn... alone... with you! Now... what to do... Please...?"_

_Moving white lights; coming nearer, going further..._

"_Gosei... snatched... your nose! WAKE!"_

"UP!"

Blearily, Hikaru lifted his head up to stare at the teacher's stern expression.

"Shindou Hikaru! Ten minutes have passed! You better stay awake and finish that paper, or else you'll find yourself in my staffroom facing the same paper after school!"

Shaking off the remnants of the strange feeling from his brief nap, Hikaru gave a small yawn and began to do the test paper.

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"Are we going to the Internet Cafe today?"

Students streamed out from the class room door behind them, chatting away happily. Hikaru waited at the entrance for Daisuke and Sai.

"No," Hikaru replied hastily. "My allowance got cut, remember? I don't have enough money for that now. And anyway, I got some else to do. You can bring Sai there today though."

"Oh...I see..." Hikaru thought he detected a hint of regret in Daisuke's reply. "Then, I'll meet you back at home then...?"

"Sure." Hikaru turned to go the opposite way in the corridor.

"Mou... Hikaru is not going to play Go with me? Stingy..." Even as he was walking away, Hikaru could still imagine the petulant pout that this Sai was no doubt sprouting.

Hikaru sighed. He really had something that he wanted to do that day. And having Daisuke or Sai with him was just going to be awkward as hell.

Turning the corner, he broke into a run. If he wanted to get there on time, he'd have to rush.

As the sound of ordinary school life faded behind him, he headed towards the train station.

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A/N: The story does seem to be taking a rather dark turn, doesn't it? And I apologise for the chapter being not quite up to its usual length.

That said, yes, I have the answers to most of your questions. They aren't going to appear so soon however. So, have patience...And review in the meanwhile. It makes me really happy whenever I read a review.

**Review~!**


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Finally, I present to you: Chapter ten!

Disclaimer: With a last pull, the caterpillar finally came to the edge of the leaf and started nibbling happily on it. Just as it was enjoying its meal, a loud crow reverberated through the air, signifying that the poor caterpillar was about to become a meal.

Hastily, the fearful caterpillar wriggled its little body with all its little might. Just as a looming beak was about to swallow it whole, the caterpillar managed to hide in a rather small hole in the tree.

The eagle stared at the tree, absolutely befuddled.

Above the hole where the caterpillar had climbed into, were words carved into the tree trunk.

Ao Yuki does not own Hikaru no Go.

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**Chapter 10**

"Shall we play go, Daisuke?"

There was something missing from Daisuke, Sai noticed, when Hikaru wasn't there. It wasn't anything particularly tangible, or obvious. And there didn't seem to be any words he knew that could describe it. It was just that... _something_ that was different in the absence the older Shindou twin. The words that came closest to describing it would be 'light'. That was the word that seemed more apt and also the only one that Sai could think up of. Daisuke was almost like a candle, and Hikaru was air for the fire on the candle. Without Hikaru's presence, Daisuke would flicker about weakly, like a dying flame. Only when Hikaru was there, that Daisuke smiled more, and was... brighter...?

"Hm? Oh, ok." The book which Daisuke had been reading was dog-eared and then placed down on the bed. Scooting nearer to the goban lying in the middle of the room, Daisuke then proceeded to make himself comfortable for the game.

Looking at the goban with a slightly wistful expression, Sai wished that he could hold the go stones. Just once would make him very happy. On some nights, when both Hikaru and Daisuke were sleeping, he would imagine that he could almost, but not quite, feel the smooth curved surface of the stone and the rough lined goban. Sai knew that ghosts didn't sleep and so, didn't dream. But Sai still held the dream that someday, he could play Go for himself again...

"Hey, Sai! Oi! Sai!" Daisuke's voice snapped his attention back to reality.

"Eh? Oh! Right! Place six stones down first."

But wasn't it enough? Sai pondered as he heard the sound of the stones knocking against the goban, almost sounding like melodious notes to his ears. To be able to just exist to play go...

But... No. it would never be enough. Sai could never get enough of Go as long as he continued to exist. He was bound to the mortal plane by his love of Go and there was never any reason for him to stop loving the very game that defined his existence. He could never stop loving the goban, with its neat lines and perfect squares that somehow seemed so mystical, it hypnotised him.

He could never stop feeling the surge of excitement that went through his veins (do ghosts have veins?) whenever a new game was started. There was the limitless possibilities, the intricate designs that was slightly different for every game that he played. Sai prided himself in the fact that given a sufficient stimulus, he could and would be able to recall every single game that he had played. There was never even once that he had taken a game lightly, for every time a stone was laid on the goban, he would etch it into his memory to be remembered for all eternity.

Delicately, Sai raised his fan to cover half his face while his eyelids fell. He allowed the numerous games that he had played to wash over him behind his eyelids, like a gentle wave lapping at the coastal sand. So many different patterns, so many different types of feelings that he had been feeling during the games. Regret, shock, giddiness, confusion, contentment, happiness...

Sadness...

There was a lot of sadness in the whole mixture of memories as well. One game stood out in his mind more than the others. Sai couldn't see or remember his opponent, but he expected it to be someone close to him. The emotion related to the particular game was mostly regretfulness, sadness, and pain akin to that of parting with a close loved one.

However, the game was, to his bewilderment, unfinished.

Sai wondered what had happened for him to leave such a great game uncompleted. It seemed such a waste... But then sometimes, Sai knew, there were things which happened that was out of a person's control. To many other people, Go was not as important as other matters, so although Sai wondered who his opponent was, he let the thought slipped out from his mind.

"K, I'm done!" Daisuke announced.

His focus shifted to the familiar goban in front of him, and his lips curved upwards in a gentle smile.

"Then let's begin."

And the struggle of black stones against white began.

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The coarse, grey headstone rose inches by inches in front of Hikaru as he climbed up the last few steps of the endless staircase. The sight brought a strange fluttery feeling to his stomach.

He wasn't expecting an oval shaped black portal with a neon green sign saying 'To Home World'. Of course not.

Hikaru didn't actually know what he was doing in Innoshima. He just had an urge to see the spot where he had somehow through some orthodox means, travelled into another world. He didn't even thought about how it was an utter waste of money (his last bit of allowance was blown on the trip, damn it), or how he was going to get home when he didn't have enough money left.

He was going to be in so much trouble.

Yet somehow, he really couldn't bring himself to care about that at the moment. Maybe later he would panic.

The headstone appeared the same as the last time he saw it. It was still grey. It had the same words on them. It was still... a headstone. Nothing more, nothing less. Nothing on it or even around it indicated any abnormalities at all.

So what was the mysterious force that sent him into another universe? What sort of power was it?

Hesitantly, Hikaru stretched out a hand and lightly brushed against the words carved onto it. With a start, he realised that they were fading. The words were not as deeply entrenched into the stone, most likely eroded by nature's various tempers.

With a sigh, Hikaru sat in front of the tomb alone, hugging his knees close to him. He stared at the tombstone.

Despite the relative warmness of temperate, he still felt cold. Empty. It was a feeling that couldn't be driven away even if Hikaru was seated right next to a heater.

"Sai... I mean, my world's Sai. I wonder where are you now? You know what's going on, right? You always seem to do… Can you tell me?" he whispered.

But he was alone, with no answers.

Hikaru remembered the time when Sai had first disappeared. He felt the same as he did now. Alone, abandoned, and somehow cheated... At that time, he thought that Sai would stay with him forever. The thought of Sai leaving didn't even cross his mind once. But then as soon as he got used to the idea of having a ghost as a companion till he died, he was left behind. With nothing else but the game that chained them together.

Sai came to him to abruptly, and left just the same way.

In both instances, he had no idea why he came to him of all the other people in the world, and why he left.

Was this going to be the same way? Would he, one day without any reason, just as he had managed to move on with his life despite being tossed into a different world, be tossed back again?

What if somehow... he landed in a universe where he didn't play Go? Or (even worse) one where he _couldn't_ play Go?

No. He couldn't, _wouldn't_ let his thoughts travel down that direction.

Where did those thoughts some from any way? The old Shindou Hikaru wouldn't be worrying so much about something like that anyway. It wasn't as if anyone was going to tell him the answer to his question. But it had taken Hikaru a very long to accept the fact that Sai wasn't coming back, and even longer to stop blaming himself for not noticing at all. Finally, wears had gone passed and he had moved on.

Then this had to happen. It was like him reading five moves forward, while his opponent read fifty. Two steps forward, but ten steps back.

With his forehead pressing against his kneecaps, Hikaru closed his eyes and sighed.

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It had been nearly a month – three weeks, three days, and seven hours in fact – that Shindou Hikaru was admitted to the hospital.

It had also been nearly a month when the Go world was in an uproar.

For the majority of the time, the sound of light breathing was the only sound in the ward. That, and the sound of a consistently beeping heart monitor. The other Go pros all came, be they close friends of his or mere acquaintances. All of them left soon after with a strangely laden heart. When faced with a pale and emotionless Shindou Hikaru, who was often smiling or laughing, they didn't know how to act.

The stream of visitors slowed day by day, leaving just a few of his closest friend or rivals to visit.

Shindou Masao was frequently seen in the ward. His facial expression showed the same amount of concern, worry and above all, pain. It pained him to see his son lying motionlessly on the bed as if he was dead. It pained him (and angered) even more when he heard from the doctor that for all they knew, Shindou Hikaru _was _dead. The machines had failed to detect any brain activities. It pained him to have lost his wife, and now he was losing his son to some unknown ailment.

He suspected, sometimes, that kami was a cruel one, there to torture mortals.

So day after day, he returned, even if briefly, to Hikaru's bedside and waited. And waited. And waited some more.

Not far away from the where he was, sat another teenager in front of a goban. He too, was waiting. For his friend and his rival, Shindou Hikaru. Every time the door bell tinkled to signify a customer, his eyes would unwillingly glance up in hope. Many old patrons of the Go salon pitied the 'poor boy' who sat at the back alone.

He knew, since even as withdrawn as he had been recently, he could still hear them clearly.

His face was blank, his eyes lacking the usual passion that burned within. With his left hand, he clumsily took the last go stone in the go-ke and placed it on the goban. Meticulously, he then grabbed a handful of black go stones on the goban and dropped them into the go-ke. They clacked noisily against the side of the go-ke.

'Don't you dare die. We haven't reached the Hand of God yet... Don't you _dare_ die, you hear?

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"Wake up, Shindou Hikaru."

Someone nudged his shoulders. Hikaru didn't know who. But whoever it was, Hikaru ignored it. He felt at peace and relaxed. There was no stress, no worries, as if the 'whole travelling across different world' thing didn't happen at all. Couldn't the person just leave him alone to doze for a few more minutes?

Letting out a small grunt in protest, Hikaru continued to hover between the borders of sleep.

The nudging stopped. Instead, it was replaced by a low growl that sounded as if it came from the deep within the person's throat.

"If you prefer to continue sleeping, do go on ahead. I must warn you however, Shindou Hikaru. You will never get the answers to your questions, nor the opportunity to get back to your home world again." The slightly feminine - sounding voice stated it calmly.

Hikaru's eyes immediately sprung open. The first thing that entered his mind was that he must be in some sort of dream. Because there was no way in reality that he remembered being able to float.

It was a very colourful place. Every colour imaginable swirled in a mixture around him, above, below, left, or right. And when he said every colour, he meant _every_ colour. They mixed together, yet remained their own, blending seamlessly. Every few seconds, Hikaru felt a strange pulse that washed over his entire body. He could even feel it in his bones.

Turning around, Hikaru faced the person that was speaking to him.

And let out a startled yelp.

In front of him stood a magnificent tiger, its eyes gazing coolly into his own. It was slightly smaller than a usual tiger, but what it lacked in physical size, it made up for it with its strikingly beautiful markings and the almost regal aura around it. Pure black stripes ran down its rusty-reddish coat. Noticing Hikaru's stare, it raised the corner of its mouth, showing its sharp canines.

When he said it 'stood', he meant it. The tiger was standing on its two hind legs, as if it had been doing that all its life.

"Finally awake, I see."

"What... I mean, who are you?"

The tiger gazed at his wide opened mouth.

"You may call me Tora. As many questions that you may be having now, I cannot answer them. I am merely here to explain your unique situation and give you your options. Perhaps if time permits, I could answer some of your questions. However, it is unwise for you to stay in this place for long so we should start... Please do maintain silence until I have explained."

Hikaru blinked owlishly. He didn't knew that to say.

"On the year of the sheep, fifth of May, five minutes and five seconds after five o'clock, you stood at the exact spot where a time-quake and space-quake occurred simultaneously in a place on Earth called Innoshima. A time-quake or space-quake occurring alone is normally not a cause for concern. These two quakes happened at the same time. The fluctuation of both waves should not have caused anything bigger than a rather strong earthquake to occur on Earth. However, you, Shindou Hikaru, happened to be standing at the exact location where both the focus of the quakes were at. Your body acted as a conductor and an insulator at the same time. Combined with the natural waves that your body was giving off, an extraordinary situation was created. You should have died, and yet you did not, for it was not your time yet."

Tora, the tiger, paused for a while.

"Your soul was thrust out of its original body and fought persistently to return. But the energy of both quakes would not allow it to do so. Your soul then used the energy to draw out a world similar to your own, pushing one of the limitless possibilities to existence. That world is the current one that you inhabit. And herein lies the problem. Only one world should be in existence at one point in time. And yet now, there are two. An infinity cannot hold two. If the situation drags out any longer, both worlds will collide and be destroyed. You, Shindou Hikaru, will have to choose between two of the worlds before that happens. Do you understand?"

Hikaru's mind spun wildly at the information overload.

He tried remembering what the tiger – Tora, said. But he couldn't. Time quakes? Space quakes? What? Waves from his body? Soul and energy?

The hell is this tiger talking about?

Talking tigers were already generally not a common sight in Hikaru's life. He didn't understand much of what was being said, but what he most certainly did hear was the part where he had to choose between the two worlds.

Something about the worlds being collided and destroyed?

What?

"Wait... What will happen to the other world after I've chosen one of them?"

"It will be pushed back into being possibilities. Simply explained, it will cease to exist."

At that, Hikaru's eyes widened again. He blinked.

"What!? That's just..."

Horrible. It was horrible and unfair! Why did this Tora person have to tell him that for! He could have lived perfectly well without knowing all of that. He didn't want to have to choose between destroying worlds, dammit!

And he was having such a nice time napping too.

He wanted to return to his own world. Of course he did. Then he could solve the entire thing about him not actually being a part of the world.

But what about Daisuke? What about Sai? What about his other 'parents'? And the rest of the people in that world? They'll just… not exist anymore? As much as he was quite confused about how to feel about living in a new world, he was just getting _used_ to it.

But… he couldn't just remain in the other world either! His real parents... The Touya Akira of his world... Akari...He couldn't just let _them_ die either.

Hikaru held his head. Ouch.

"I.. I can't choose!" He said with a tremble in his voice.

"You must. Or both worlds will be doomed. You don't have to choose now, but soon. For now, you will continue to inhabit the other world which your soul had pushed into existence. But as you were not supposed to be there in the first place, your physical body and your soul are repelling each other. To stay as one, your soul is currently drawing energy from the one closest and most similar to you. The longer you stay in that world, the stronger the force of repulsion will be and the more energy is needed. If a certain amount of energy is taken from that person, he or she will die."

The colours spun more wildly around, and the pulsation became stronger with each second.

"Time is almost up."

Tora prowled forward to where Hikaru stood, frozen by fear and indecision.

And anger.

"Remember, your choice is responsible for either the continual survival or the destruction of a world. So Shindou Hikaru, choose wisely..."

With a gentle breath blown on his face, the colours abruptly vanished, leaving a bright flash of light. And then, there was only darkness.

Shindou Hikaru opened his eyes to Honinbou Shuusaku's tombstone.

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A/N: The appearance of Hikaru's home world. A single headstone in Innoshima. Another world. A teenager caught up in something he didn't understand. Things are about to get more complicated. Can you guess what's going to happen? I can. In this chapter there is a (very extremely) faint clue telling us why Hikaru got angry at seeing the young Touya.

Now...

**Review. **You know you want to.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: With a curtsy, I present you chapter 11. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: Alone, the withered leaf hung on the brown, barren apple tree. Its stalk was attached to the dried, gnarled branch by barely quarter of a millimetre. Even the smallest, gentlest wind would disconnect its only lifeline.

The girl, with the two ponytails, a straw hat and a pair of bright green eyes that saw nothing sat beneath the tree. For a while, she merely sat, unmoving until something light brushed pass her right hand.

She never knew that the leaf on her hand was the last of its kind. She crumpled it and threw it away.

And she never knew that on the leaf were the words.

Ao Yuki does not own Hikaru no Go.

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**Chapter 11**

"You." A teenage boy with bleached bangs announced. "Are an idiot."

A snort was the only reply.

"You know, that's rich. Coming from you." The other teenage boy with unusual dark green hair said calmly in the face of the insult, as if he was all too used to them.

"Don't try to divert the attention from yourself!" He pointed a finger at his friend that was currently lying propped up on the hospital's bed. "It won't work on me anymore!"

"Well, that just means that it worked on you before. So in conclusion, you are still an idiot, Shindou Hikaru-kun."

"You...!" Shindou Hikaru growled in annoyance. "Talking to you always makes me feel stupid anyway..." he mumbled under his breath while shaking his head.

"And so the fool finally admits that he is a fool!"

"Oh shut up, Touya." Shindou Hikaru started pacing the to and fro agitatedly, his head bowed. "I wonder how the Weekly Go will report this..."

"Since when were you concerned about the press?" Touya Akira quirked an eyebrow up in genuine surprise.

"Since the doctor announced that you won't be able to regain full use of your right hand!" he shouted in exasperation. "Pray tell me, _why_ aren't you more concerned about this?! Do you know what this means?! It means that you won't be able to play Go any more!"

"Don't be so dramatic," Akira cut in before Hikaru could ramble on. "I can still use my left hand. And it's not as if my right hand is totally crippled. I just won't be able to hold Go stones with it. With the surgery and therapy, it may even recover fully."

Staring at the bandages on his right hand, specifically, the fingers on his right hand, Touya Akira said quietly.

"It's not the end of the world."

The atmosphere of the wards quickly changed to a more solemn one.

Hikaru stopped pacing and sat down on the chair beside the hospital bed.

"Why?" he asked with a resigned sigh.

"Why what?"

"Come on..." Hikaru demanded. "Stop acting stupid. I know that you know what I'm asking. Why did you grab that knife?" He shook his head. "I could have dodged that. You didn't have to -"

"Yes, I had to!" Akira said with a sudden anger. "Admit it! Unless you took up kung-fu while hiding it from everyone, you couldn't have dodged that damned knife! Was I supposed to watch the robber kill you? My friend? Or at least, I _thought _of you as my friend. Maybe I thought too much. Was I supposed to watch you _die_ in front of me while I run away like a coward?! Tell me!"

Silence hung in the air after the outburst. Hikaru didn't seem to know how to respond.

"How's your arm?" Akira asked quietly.

"Oh... It's nothing. Barely a scratch," Hikaru replied with a shrug. "Doctor says it'll be fine after a month at most." He tentatively clenched and unclenched his fist.

Akira shook his head. "I can't believe you did that. The robber could have cut off your whole arm -"

"Yeah, stupid right? Just like the part when you actually grabbed hold of the knife."

And after a pause, they both snickered.

"I guess we're even then." Hikaru sat down on the chair again.

"No, we're not!" Akira glared. "You still owe me three games!"

Hikaru stared at Akira incredulously. "What? You are still thinking of Go _now_?"

"Of course. It's always a pleasure to see you defeated."

"Bullshit! I've kicked your ass more times than you won," Hikaru retorted. After a small pause, he added solemnly. "Go really is your whole life, huh?"

Akira smirked. "Not really. By time I met you, I wanted to quit go and become a lawyer."

The expression on Hikaru's face warranted a short bark of laughter from Akira.

"Is that so surprising? I don't think you've thought about becoming a Go pro either. I still remember you saying you'll just become a pro for a little bit and grab a few titles."

"Hey, I didn't say that!"

"You did."

Scowling, Hikaru asked. "But why did you want to quit Go?"

It took a while for Akira to formulate a response. With his eyes fixated on a spot on the bandages, he squirmed a little before he began.

"Because it was tiring," he said with a small sigh. "It was just... so tiring. I love Go. I really do, but sometimes, I felt like Go was suffocating me. It's like I exist only to play the game. There was just so much expectation for me to meet. It was the pressure, I guess. I am only human. Maybe I wasn't as strong as Father, because I found that I couldn't walk the road to the Hand of God alone."

"So I contemplated on being a lawyer, my next choice of career. Although my grades weren't always the best in the class... With a bit of work, I think could have made it. Though Father would be disappointed in me, maybe..."

He gave a pause, and then a glare to Hikaru.

"And then _you_ turned up." He smiled as if amused by something. "I got so angry at your attitude that the next thing I knew, I was frantically studying Go again just to beat you."

Shindou Hikaru kept quiet, motionless. His right hand on his side twitched for a moment, before he abruptly stood up. He grabbed hold of a stalk of plastic flower – a pink Peruvian Lily– in a vase beside the hospital bed and hit Touya Akira over his head with it.

Akira merely blinked in bewilderment as the flower bounced off his head harmlessly and landed on the floor.

"You - !" Hikaru opened his mouth, then closed it, as if unable to continue. So he hit his friend over his head over another time with another stalk of flower (this time an orange one).

Then, he dissolved into peals of laughter.

Touya Akira inched away from Hikaru in disgust. "Don't pass your insanity germs to me."

Between his roar of laughter and tears, Hikaru spoke.

"Man... I haven't laughed," he grabbed a breath of fresh air before laughing and trying to speak again. "Like that in _ages_. You! As a lawyer! Oh kami...! My stomach..."

"What? What's so funny?"

Hikaru calmed himself down enough to explain. "Do you still remember the suit that you wore? That pink one. I think if you appeared in court for trial wearing that," he snickered,"they'll be suing you for 'contempt of court' or something."

"My fashion sense," he spluttered. "Has got nothing to do with you!"

"_Your_ fashion sense is on the same level of my mom's Go skills. None"

Akira glowered "Tell me that after you get the Tengen title."

"Oh you bet I will. You don't have to worry about that, my dear Meijin's son."

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Numbly, Hikaru walked down the deserted streets of Innoshima.

A small part of his brain that was still working ranted and raged at the heavens for the untimely rain.

Oh yeah. Rain on him, won't you. Right after telling him that he got to go off and destroy a world.

The moment he stumbled out from the cemetery in somewhat of a stupor, clouds immediately turned darker and it started pouring. Walking in the torrents of water falling from the heavens did nothing to clear his dazed mind or erase away the uncomfortable bar of lead that sat in this stomach. If anything, it worsened it. He was now cold, wet, and confused as hell. Nothing made sense to him. Like why his life was full of drama and saturated with life changing moments (lives changing moments, in this case), or why he had to be the one to choose who should die. Or even why it cost so much to get back to mainland Japan, and indirectly, home.

If he knew a word to describe how a person would feel after being kicked, pinched, knuckled sandwiched, slapped, rolled down a slope only to get slammed into a truck, and then thrown off a cliff into a deep dark abyss, Hikaru would definitely use it. However, he didn't. But the phrase 'Kami's own punching bag' seemed to suit his situation well enough.

Not a single car passed by him. However, he could have been easily mistaken. After all, it was raining so hard that he couldn't hear much of anything other than the thunderous sound of water pounding heavily against the asphalt pavement. He couldn't see any object clearly if it was further than a few metres away. Buildings in the distance merely looked like blurred, indistinguishable shapes. He doubted he would even be able to identify a car going pass him even if it was hot pink and bright orange in colour and its stereo was blasting Linkin Park's songs.

So he continued to shuffle along, shoulders slumped and head bowed, the exact model of a depressed teenager. The only thin silver lining in the black cloud showed that at least it was still evening, as his watch (waterproof, like his school bag) told him. His encounter with Tora the tiger hadn't been as long as he had expected.

The next thing he knew, he bumped into a random rubbish bin that really seemed as if it emerged purely for the sake of making Hikaru stumble. What was worse – he didn't even get the satisfaction of seeing trash spilling out, as the bin was woefully empty like his wallet.

"Hey, boy! Stop!"

At first, as Hikaru thought that the voice must have been his over-active imagination at work, he ignored it and continued shuffling in misery. The throaty, basso bellow announced its presence again.

"I said stop!"

Hikaru stopped walking. Instead, he turned to the direction where he roughly gauged the voice came from.

An old man who, at first glance looked to be in his fifties, emerged from the downpour like a phantom. He held on to an ordinary walking cane with his right hand and a black umbrella with his left.

Evidently, he had prepared for the temperamental weather (unlike Hikaru), as he was wearing a transparent poncho in addition to the umbrella. Inside the poncho, he wore a black zhongshang suit. A jade green ring on his right thumb caught Hikaru's eye, as its surface gleamed like polished silverware under spotlight. The old man had short snowy white hair, a stiff white moustache on his upper lips, and skin that was almost white, yet retaining the slightest shred of ivory to keep it from being paper-like. He was a whole two heads taller than Hikaru and possessed the airs of an aristocrat, with the hawk-like features on his face, sharp angular cheekbones and a pair of cool almond-shaped eyes. Despite his white hair and wrinkled skin, the old man gave off the aura that he wasn't someone to be trifled with.

Woah. Hikaru blinked for a moment. Since when had he ever waxed poetry about someone's looks?

He frowned.

"Help me to move those boxes," the old man commanded and pointed to a spot behind him using his cane, "Inside the shop and I will pay you."

Hikaru blinked a few times, and then irritatedly used his hand to wiped away the water hanging on his eyebrow. Of course, that didn't do much other to clear his sight either.

"Uh... you see... I... I - " He started intelligently.

"I have no time! Move those boxes now! Honestly! Children these days!" The old man's voice trailed off as the he turned around and marched off.

Giving a small sigh and a shrug, Hikaru followed. He might as well.

The boxes were one word –_ heavy_. Thankfully, there were only five of them so his muscle didn't suffer so much. The old man kept his word, and gave him just enough money for Hikaru to take a single trip back to the mainland.

When he finally got off the bus (the driver scowled disparagingly at him, but thankfully allowed him on board), the moon had risen. Using the final few coins that he had, Hikaru braced himself and called home.

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The sky was still the usual cerulean blue. The birds still chirped annoyingly early in the morning. The Earth was still spinning (Hikaru checked the news). There was no unexpected tsunami, no unexpected volcano eruptions, no extra strong earthquake, and no hurricanes threatening to blow off everyone's rooftops.

All in all, everything was disgustingly normal, as if the troubling idea that Hikaru now held the fate of the world in his hands was just a stupid dream.

But he knew that it wasn't just a dream. Dreams at least, he could wake up from. Reality was much crueller than that. The worst nightmares always happen when one wasn't asleep.

Go was about making decisions – about choosing between two equally right choices and taking the lesser of evils. The worse thing that could happen if one picked the wrong spot on the go board was that person losing. It could be a little painful on the ego. Maybe a little embarrassing, but at least he was pretty sure that no one would die over it. Not counting the time when Touya Meijin had a heart attack.

He tried to decide with a detached mind, weighing the two options against each other and choosing one that was the best. But it just didn't work that way. He had an abrupt empathy with the doctors who had to choose between saving the mother or the child.

That night, Hikaru had a nightmare.

He woke up from his bed with a howl of despair half stifled in his dry, parched throat, his T-shirt clinging to the skin of his body because of cold sweat, and the faint metallic taste of blood in his mouth. Drawing in several shuddering breaths of cold air, Hikaru tried to calm down his wildly pounding heart.

Even if he wanted to, Hikaru couldn't remember the nightmare that woke him up. Everything was hazy, mostly a swirl of panic, fear, and confusion. Colours melding into each other, voices, conflict, sounds...

Figuring that he wouldn't be able to get to sleep for a while, Hikaru got out of the bed. He winced a little when his feet touched the cold floor, and quickly tucked them into the warm pair of fuzzy slippers.

"Hikaru?" Sai's ghostly voice whispered in the dark.

Gulping, Hikaru answered it. "Erm... Sai. I'm just going to get something to drink... "

"Oh..."

Without any other words exchanged, Hikaru slipped out of bed and over to the door, trying not to meet Sai's inquisitive eyes. Carefully, he shut the bedroom door behind him and padded down the staircase leading to the kitchen.

In the day, the kitchen was his mother's domain. Every time he returned home, his mother would be bustling around the kitchen table top, cooking or cleaning while humming a jaunty tune under her breath. It reminded Hikaru of the sunshine –bright, cheerful, dazzling–, his blanket – warm, relaxing, comfortable– and something that was wholly and uniquely _home_.

At night, the kitchen bore an absolute contrast to the day, almost as if it was a foreign place. Shadows cast by the lampposts outside the house reached out like tendrils, creeping into the house, and the sound of crickets' buzz caused a shiver down Hikaru's spine. Quickly, Hikaru opened the refrigerator to get the half bottle of coca cola he had left unfinished, and was about to close the door when someone spoke.

"Hikaru?"

Startled, Hikaru flinched a little before turning to find his father's silhouette against the kitchen entrance. It was difficult to make out his expression in the inky blackness, but surprised would have been a good guess.

"Dad? What are you doing here?"

"Well, Hikaru, I don't know. Maybe it's because I live here?" His father answered with a wry tone in his voice.

Hikaru rolled his eyes. "I mean what are doing in the kitchen? Aren't you going to sleep?"

"Do you need to ask?" Shindou Masao pushed past his son to grab a beer can. "I just came back from work. I'm thirsty of course."

"Oh..."

Unanimously, father and son moved to the dining table and sat opposite from each other in the dark, each nursing their own chosen beverage.

"How is school so far?" The older Shindou took a sip of beer.

"Fine..." Hikaru intoned dully.

Hikaru's father stopped drinking. "Fine? Now that's something I've never heard you say before."

"It's lousy then."

"What's the problem?"

"Dad," Hiakru piped up. "If you are a doctor, between saving the mother and the child, which will you save?"

There was a pregnant pause, before his father replied. "I don't know."

"...Gee. Thanks, Dad."

"Don't mention it, son."

Just like that, Hikaru bantered with his father back and forth, talking about entirely nonsensical things, commonly predictable things, and easily forgettable things, until his coca cola bottle was empty and his toes began freezing. Both then retreated back into their own beds.

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Hikaru was in a place of complete happiness, joy welling up from every nook and cranny of his brain, delight leaking into every crevice of his mind. Everything was so perfect and sparkling clean, so impossibly flawless that he wondered to himself how he managed to arrive in such a place.

He could see his heart beating too fast. Was he running? He could hear the colour of amber pool of sunshine pouring into his throat. Was he thirsty? He could feel the velvet sound of waves crashing onto the sandy shores, the coldness of the heat penetrating his euphoria. Like a broken record, the lyrical dance of pressure nudging at the corner of consciousness invariably pushed him forward.

Then the tiles of white broke, shards sprinkled down like dust.

It took a full day, for Hikaru's fever to finally break.

Inevitable, it was. After all, one couldn't expect to be entirely unaffected by walking in the rain for several hours, trudging across miles while carrying a heavy school bag.

Dragging his feet on the ground, Hikaru entered the bathroom and closed the door behind him.

Gods, he felt _horrible_. His nose was too choked up for him to breathe; his eyelids weighed a tonne, and his throat made coughing like sandpaper rubbing against sandpaper. Even walking was made difficult by how everything around him seemed to be spinning like merry go round, and how his feet made it their agenda to trip him.

Sat against the light blue tiles of the bathroom wall, Hikaru placed a palm on his forehead, attempting to gauge his own temperature. His cold and clammy palm provided a brief relief against the heat emanated, as he coughed and tried to swallow whatever phlegm that was stuck in his throat.

But that just made him cough more.

Stumbling slightly, he stood up and managed (barely) not to fall down again when the bathroom seemed to lurch sideways. He lifted his heavy limbs and ordered them to turn the tap on.

The first splash of icy water shocked him out of his stupor. The second splash made him aware of the frigid chill deep in his bones that came naturally from his illness and long slumber. As the saying goes, 'the third time's the charm', the third splash caused reality to come plunging down onto him.

Hikaru took a sip of tap water –a soothing sensation against the caustic walls of his throat– and turned off the tap.

He clenched and opened his fist.

Gah. He hated being sick.

Abruptly, Hikaru jerked his right hand, clenched into a ball, and hit it against the porcelain tile with a several lame-sounding 'thwack'.

Even when sick, his feverish mind had been going through the decision that he had to make.

The pain that blazed from his knuckles helped him to push away the looming decision and his oscillation between two worlds.

His forehead pressed on the wall. His breathing stalled, Hikaru made his choice.

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A/N: I've learned it the hard way not to fight with my muse. She always gets her way.

Christmas is coming, isn't it? Now for my Christmas present, I want more reviews! -coughs- A new laptop would be nicer. Or maybe the copyright to Hikaru no Go.

In any case, Happy Christmas!

Now, **Review. **It keeps an author going and brightens their otherwise dull day.


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: Planning for the destruction of a universe isn't easy, you know. Neither is the distortion of time.

Disclaimer: His fingers leaped across the black and white keys of the piano, and the ghostly and somewhat tuneless melody of his own composition echoed in the room. A vague sense of desperation that was just as similarly portrayed in his music fogged over his eyes. In complete solitude, Don played on.

As the mansion collapsed around him in an array of cloudy dust and solid bricks, drowning the music, he mouthed the words that he could no longer speak.

'Ao Yuki does not own Hikaru no Go.'

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**Chapter 12**

Sai traced the outer grid lines of the goban.

He was aware of the fact that he couldn't touch it. Other than Hikaru and Daisuke, Sai couldn't touch anything or anyone. But a ghost can still wish. Sai's wish was simply to play Go for himself. One day, perhaps...

A few minutes ago, Hikaru had locked himself in the bathroom. The sound of running water came from it soon after. Hikaru didn't seem to meet Sai's gaze, choosing instead to fixate his eyes on the bathroom door.

Sai sighed. There was something about Shindou Hikaru that he couldn't quite place. It was that tingling feeling he had whenever he witness Hikaru playing Go, as if there was something on the tip of his tongue that he very much wanted to say. But then it always seemed to slip away before he could catch hold of it. His mind would be clear once second, slightly foggy the next, and then clear again.

It was most frustrating. The ghost would occasionally frown and wonder if ghosts were supposed to have memory lapses.

Another small sigh found its way out of Sai's mouth. If he really, really concentrated, Sai thought he could just about feel the grid lines on the goban. His finger hovered just about where a mortal finger would land on. Star to star his fingers went, until he completed the whole rectangle.

Then the tip of his middle finger connected with the tengen point, and everything went haywire. Briefly, Sai saw a flash of light from his finger before his sight blacked out and a flood of information rushed into his head. His eyelids automatically snapped shut while his mind assimilated the flashes of images too fast to grasp - words, emotions, smells, tastes, thoughts...

Sai blinked at the goban and gave a sad smile, a far away look in his eyes.

_Oh kami... why...?_

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_His forehead pressed on the wall, his breathing stalled, Hikaru made his choice._

Gradually, Hikaru felt his surroundings change. As if an unknown weight was lifted off his shoulders, he stood taller and straighter. The familiar feeling of pure serenity and bliss washed over him and he closed his eyes at the sensation. If heaven was like this, then Hikaru thought that it indeed deserved its name. Did Sai, being a ghost, felt like this all the time? So... light, so calm.

"You have decided?"

Hikaru whirled around to face Tora. Somehow unwilling to sully the peaceful lull in the place (wherever he was), he merely nodded.

"So moot it be, Shindou Hikaru. Be aware that you will not be able to change your choice."

Numbly, Hikaru nodded again.

"You have until sunset. Make the most of it, Shindou Hikaru. Leave no regrets..."

With that, the swirling colourful liquid-like walls around him melted along with Tora the tiger. The weight of a mortal body and the remnants of his illness came back to him abruptly.

He found himself standing in the bathroom, water dripping down his face and hair.

And that was it. A nod, a few words, and the fate of a world was sealed.

Even with the little energy that he had left, Hikau somehow managed to stumble back into his own room. No other thought more complicated than 'sleep' crossed his mind. The moment he reached his bed, he collapsed into a dreamless slumber.

The other occupant in the room just stared out of the window while humming a soft lullaby. Somehow in his gaze, there was an extra recognition that wasn't present before.

Hikaru just continued to sleep on.

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He awoke, feeling groggy and disgruntled.

The first thing that he noticed was the sound of footsteps thumping up the staircase was, followed by the silhouette of someone standing in the doorway of his bedroom.

"Nii-chan? You're awake! Are you're feeling okay now? It's dinner time!"

Hikaru yawned. He felt weak, and tired.

But at least he had made his decision.

"Yeah. I'm fine. I'll be right down."

His voice sounded alien to him; It was monotonous and coarse.

"Oh okay!"

Footsteps faced away down the stairs again.

Hikaru sighed and dragged himself out of bed.

It hadn't been an easy decision.

In less than a day, he was destroying his only chance of going back home.

Not that it mattered, he supposed. This was home now. There _was_ no other place for him to go.

He didn't mind.

It'd be better this time around.

Casting a longing look over his shoulders at the bedroom, Hikaru closed the door and trudged downstairs for dinner.

Dinner came and went in a blurred gathering of motion that he couldn't remember even if he wanted to. His mind was occupied with wondering what he was going to do next.

Become an insei? Perhaps. Could he take the pro exams now?

Glancing at the alarm clock, Hikaru realised that in a few more hours, his own world was going to be destroyed.

The comic in front of him really wasn't helping. Not when it spoke of the end of the world. He turned his troubled mind to the goban. As usual, the sight of it calmed him down.

He sighed again, for the umpteenth times.

Daisuke had gone out with their mother for grocery shopping. Hikaru thought that he would rather be at home when his home world ended, so didn't go. Sai, strangely enough, wanted to stay with him instead.

He didn't complain. It was time he tried to get to know this world's Sai anyway.

"Hikaru."

Hikaru could recognise the owner of the voice without turning around.

"Sai...?" When he did turn around, it was only to lock gaze with a pair of pensive turquoise eyes. Sai was the one to turn away first, to goban in the middle of the room. It wasn't surprising. Sai always wanted to play Go.

For some reason he couldn't identify, he felt hesitant at playing a game with him. He didn't know why. It wasn't as if he hadn't played Sai before. Far from it. Daisuke and Hikaru had taken turns in playing with him whenever they could.

But still he hesitated. Somehow, Hikaru didn't want to play what felt like the 'one last game' with Sai. It brought back too many overwhelming memories of the endless searching, the panics, the regrets.

He shook his head. Really, what was wrong with him.

Hikaru slid off the bed and walking towards the goban. Before he knew it, the go-ke was set up on the side of the goban, and he was seated down, seiza style on the tatami mat. He let out a shaky breath and asked.

"Hey... Let's play... Sai."

Sai's face was unreadable.

"Stupid Hikaru... Of course we'll play."

Hikaru let out a breath he unknowingly held.

"Ok. You are black, Sai."

Hikaru waited for Sai's fan to point out his opening move. For the longest time there was no movement. It was as if time had frozen in that room, the place where Sai and Hikaru had exchanged so many moves, shared laughter, and synchronised sighs.

Patiently, Hikaru waited. His eyes were fixated on the goban, fascinated by how the lines were etched onto the wood and how the light was reflected off it.

"There," Sai whispered. The fan landed on Sai's favourite opening move.

Pachi. The stone was brought down with a precision honed by years of experience.

The game began.

It was like a black hole that Hikaru was inevitably sucked into. Somehow, there was no real white or real black; there was just Sai and there was Hikaru, fighting on the wooden board. Sai might call it a dance of some sort. He was poetic like that. After all, dancing sounded much more elegant than fighting. To Hikaru however, it was not a dance. It was war.

Sensing weakness at the black clusters on the bottom right hand, Hikaru attacked relentlessly. Sai fended it off without much hesitation, as if he predicted that move all along. All too late then, did Hikaru discover his opponent's intention to divert his attention from the tengen, where white's territory was threatened. With a tiny smirk, Hikaru grabbed a white stone and swiftly placed it at 7-5, where he had placed his trap all along.

Somehow, Hikaru managed to win that battle at the centre of the goban, and for a moment, he thought he felt Sai falter.

But then Hikaru scoffed at that thought. Sai never faltered in face of anyone when it comes to Go.

The war continued. Soldiers were sacrificed in face of the bigger picture. Territories lost and won.

To and fro, both Go players play. Neither held anything back. Hikaru played with a ferocious animal instinct that surprised even himself. Decisions were made at the speed of lightning, ambushes planned and ridiculous ideas discarded just as fast. Even the fact that he was playing _The Legendary Sai_ slipped his mind once the game started.

He was just an opponent. And like all opponents he faced, Hikaru played to attain the hand of god.

Quite as abruptl as it began, it was over.

There was a sense of loss somehow, just when Hikaru was about to place another stone, only to discover that the game had already ended. For a full three seconds, he was motionless. Then slowly, Hikaru retracted the stone he was about to place and dropped it back into the go-ke.

Immediately, Hikaru's eyes swept over the goban, counting the territories for both sides.

It took a while to calculate, what with the unique shape. The result after the adding the komi made Hikaru suck in a deep breath and swallowed.

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"Are you just going to lie there forever?" Touya Akira demanded.

His reply was the usual silence from the limp body of Shindou Hikaru and the slow beeping sound emitting from the machine beside the bed. Even though he expected that, Akira still felt an iota of disappointment when Hikaru didn't leap out of the bed and challenge him to a game of Go.

Slowly, the Go prodigy let out a deep breath and closed his eyes. It had been weeks since Hikaru was sent to the hospital for a mild concussion. The Go weekly had a field-day about that, causing a fuss by claiming that Shuusaku was back and somehow possessed Hikaru and caused him to enter a coma.

Akira thought that those reporters were sprouting utter rubbish like usual and reacted in the way much like the way Hikaru had reacted to his earlier questions – silence and more silence.

None of the doctors could figure out what exactly was _wrong_ with Hikaru. In fact, most said that other than the rather ugly black and blue bruise that had faded long ago, Hikaru was otherwise physically fine.

His brain waves had long since been established as normal again.

Yet if so, why was he in a coma?

There was the sound of the door opening, and Akira turned to find Hikaru's fatherstanding at the door.

"Ah. Touya Akira."

"Shindou-san." Akira gave a small bow. "I came here to see how Hikaru is doing."

Shindou Masao nodded back but otherwise did not reply.

"You have been here quite often."

Akira gave a small nod back.

"Yes. Hikaru is… someone important to me," he replied.

There was a raised eyebrow from the older man.

"No, no. Not like that," Akira added hastily.

"It's just, in Go, I mean. We need an equal opponent. It's – it's difficult to explain," he said apologetically.

There was a few seconds of silence. Then Masao sighed.

"It doesn't matter to me, anyway. As long as Hikaru is happy…"

Their eyes involuntarily flickered to watch Hikaru.

The same question passed simultaneously through their minds. Instead of 'when will he wake up?', it was now 'will he ever wake up?'

And guilt immediately wormed itself into their hearts. Of course he would wake up.

He must.

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"You won. Congratulations." Hikaru said with a sigh.

Black had won, as predicted. Sai had won. Sai, the unbeatable. Sai, always the winner. It was expected.

"It's always like this," he mumbled. Someday. Someday he was going to win Sai.

"Hikaru..."

Sai's voice was soft as usual, but there seemed to be some other emotion that Hikaru couldn't quite detect.

"I ne-"

"Go look for Daisuke, Sai!" Hikaru covered his ears with his hands. "You won, okay?"

He glared sullenly at the goban. He really thought he had a chance…

"But Hikaru..."

"I can't hear you!" Closing his eyes, Hikaru dove blindly towards his bed and snuggled deep under the blankets. He couldn't bear the thought. The thought of forever losing to Sai. The thought of losing Sai yet again. The two thoughts rattled him something horrible. Which one did he hate most? Losing to Sai or losing Sai?

Honestly, he didn't know why it bothered him so much.

The next thing he knew, a chilly hand was tugging on his left hand.

"I'm a ghost, Hikaru. Blankets don't stop me."

Though slightly muffled by his hands, Sai's voice could still be heard. Desperation made Hikaru press his hand even closer to his ears. Why he was acting so childishly, damned if he knew...

But he shouldn't have bothered. Sai stopped tugging on his hand.

_'I know that you can hear me, Hikaru.'_

_Oh shit._ Hikaru forgot all about the telepathic link. Mentally, he sang Twinkle Twinkle little Star aloud, hoping to drown Sai's voice with his singing.

For all that it was worth, it didn't do much good. Sai's voice was hardly dulled at all by his off tune mental singing.

_'Don't be like this, Hikaru. Please.' _Sai's voice was begging. _We don't have much time. I just want to tell Hikaru that I had fun when I was with you. All those games, every single one of them. The last time I didn't get to tell you that before I... I'm sorry."_

Mild confusion was Hikaru's first reaction. That confusion soon changed to shock. The more that he heard, the more his stomach dropped. There was only one conclusion to be drawn from Sai's speech.

_'I saw, Hikaru. I saw how you tried to find me, and when you couldn't, you were... you were so sad! I just don't want you to be sad. Not for me. Please. Do what I could not and reach the Hand of God, Hikaru.'_

_'_Shindou Hikaru could be an incredibly dense person at certain times, and astute the next. No one could foresee which part of him would come out. He was naturally an unpredictable person.

But now, Hikaru was not being obtuse. In a strange sense of clarity, Hikaru knew that that must have been what Tora meant when he said to say his goodbyes.

The Fujiwara no Sai standing in this room wasn't a different Sai that Hikaru had once attempted to convinced himself he was. He was Sai;_ the _Sai. The one that accompanied him for years.

How many times had he made the motion to turn his head around after every game, as if he expected someone to be there? How many times had he laid on his bed at night, hoping to play a game with Sai? How many times had he wondered if Sai was just a figment of his imagination?

How many times had he wished that kami would just bring him back?

And he was right in front of him now.

Hikaru threw the blanket off.

"Sai!"

The two of them hugged. Ghost to boy. Hikaru closed his eyes.

Yes, this was his Sai. The _real _Sai. At least, for that moment.

"How… how did you," Hikaru started to ask.

"Kami knows, Hikaru. But I do not have much time here." Hikaru looked up at his smiling face.

"What do you mean?"

"I just wanted to tell you this, Hikaru. Treasure this chance. Things may be different in this world, but many things stay the same. This world's Sai will be with you and Daisuke until the both of you are ready. You won't be alone, Hikaru. I can't tell you more than that… But you won't be alone. And of course…"

_'...Do what I could not and reach the Hand of God, Hikaru.'_

And just like that, Sai was gone. Again.

"Sai..."

"Huh? Hikaru?" Confused purple eyes met his teary ones. "Why are you hugging me?"

"It's nothing," he said gruffly, he stepped back.

There was a strange sort of aching inside him – which a few seconds later he realised was his heart. For that one moment, his Sai was with him.

He was there, to reassure him that he had made the right choice.

He smiled at the game on the goban.

It was enough.

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_At the moment sunset appeared, the switch was flipped off. Time flow of the parasitic universe stopped. The energy that was removed in that world went gushing back into the one Reality. The parasitic universe eased back into being merely another one out of the infinite possibilities._

_One of the most common questions asked by humans is 'What if...? What if this had happened instead of that? What if Hitler was a female? What if Thomas Alva Edison did not exist? What if phoenixes, dragons, and unicorns were real?'_

_What would happen then? Infinite possibilities are the answers. They are very real, yet are also fake. They could be, but could never be._

_As the world disintegrated around him, Touya Akira held onto the arm of Shindou Hikaru, his best friend and rival. _

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A/N: Pretty intense chapter, this is.

Now, you know what you **must** do. Go **review! **They are what keep an author going.


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: Here you are. Chapter 13, the new chapter. I've replaced the previous 12 chapters with their revised versions (yes, without anyone noticing) because I haven't actually done anything much with them. Just tidied them up a little bit and make Hikaru less angsty. It was getting on my nerves. If you want to re-read them, feel free to. Only the last 2 or 3 chapters have had some big changes so.

Let's move on to the actual story now. No more wishy washy and mushy ending. Well. Not until the actual end anyway. I've got more things to toss at Hikaru.

Disclaimer:

Sunlight shone down, its light rays slowly waking up the denizens of Earth.

Some said that Earth was flat, that it lay upon the back of four gigantic elephants standing on the back of an even more gigantic turtle. They said that it you sailed your ships far enough, it would fall off the edge of Earth.

But Jane wasn't afraid. She would rather fall off the edge, knowing what was _really there_ as opposed to not knowing for the rest of her life. But her ship had been sailing for a while now. And she hadn't fallen off the edge yet.

It was strangely disappointing.

But not as strange as the strange carving that she saw on her ceiling. It was in a language that she had never seen before, and when she asked some of the other sailors to take a look at it in the hopes that one of them might know what it said, it faded away.

_Ao Yuki does not own Hikaru no Go._

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**Chapter 13**

At about a point between twilight and dawn, he woke up.

It couldn't really be called waking, per se; it was something like sleeping while retaining complete awareness of his surroundings. Lying there in the semi darkness, listening to the beeping of the machine that accompanied his heartbeat and the soft humming of the air conditioner and feeling the cool air travelling from his face, to his arm, to his legs, was enough to lull him into that half trance like state between fully conscious and dreaming. It was soothing, just focusing on those sensations. It was also peaceful.

But it was difficult to track the passage of time in that state when things seemed to be gently floating. He estimated that at least several minutes must have passed before he finally decided to open his eyes.

There was a darkened outline of the lamp on the linoleum ceiling, and a few blurry shapes of light that led to more darkness. He blinked for a few seconds, his mind blank. A wave of exhaustion suddenly overtook him. The simple action of opening his eyes sapped away all his strength.

He sank into dreamland.

It wasn't so difficult, he thought, to wake up. But prying open his eyelids on the other hand, were.

The second time he opened his eyes, it was to a rather familiar scent that he could just barely recognise – a mixture of light perfume (Julia's Oceania, his mind provided him with the brand's name even), detergent, and blood.

He wondered about the last for a moment, before he noticed that the scent of blood was from his nose. Likely due to the tube stuck in it.

"Ouch."

His voice was raspy from long disuse and his throat painfully dry. Any attempts he made to speak sprung tears to his eyes. Breathing was awkward, and he felt as if his nose was choked up by stones. He couldn't move his hands, and let out a muffled groan. There was a jolt on his left side and someone exclaimed.

"Akira! You're awake!"

Briefly, he saw a haggard and familiar-looking face hovering inches from his face.

"Breath..!" he managed to whisper, before he fainted.

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Tentatively, he opened his eyes. The feeling of passing out from the lack of oxygen remained vividly in his mind.

He found himself surrounded by people – big, small, young, old, tall, short, red hair, green hair – and most, if not all, were silent.

For a few seconds, no one noticed him and he was free to look around. The woman who had nearly killed him with a hug was sleeping on a sofa, her head rested on a tired-looking man. He had a feeling that these two people were not supposed to have so much white hair, but he didn't know how he knew.

Before his eyes got to travel to the other people, the woman that had previously choked him in a hug saw him, and her eyes widened.

"Akira!" she breathed out.

Startled out from her seat, the girl stared at him as if she wanted desperately to go forth and hug him again, but barely refrained herself. The noise level rose with an amazing speed.

But faster than he could say anything, the room was cleared of all non-personnel.

"Hello, Touya-kun. I am Doctor Sora. How are you feeling right now?"

The medical faculty began the tedious task of giving him a once over.

"Confused," he replied after a moment, and then frowned.

"Say... what did you call me...?"

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"Are we going to the internet Café today?" Daisuke asked as they walked out from the gates.

Hikaru was just about to reply that he wanted to visit a CD shop, when someone tackled him from behind.

"Finally caught up…! With both of you!"

Hikaru turned to find Akari, her face flushed from running. She was panting.

He raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah?"

"You two keep disappearing after school these days!" she huffed and crossed her arms. "I wanted to ask you if you wanted to go to the food festival!"

Hikaru mouthed an 'oh'. Food festival huh? That sounded fun.

"When is it?" Daisuke asked curiously.

"It's this Sunday at 3pm," she replied. She started digging into her bag.

"Here!"

Hikaru and Daisuke both ended up having a ticket shoved into their hands.

"It's at my sister's Junior High School. You know where that is, right?" She tilted her head.

"Hey, nii-chan! It's free takoyaki!" Daisuke exclaimed.

"Ok, ok. We'll be going," Hikaru answered, putting the tickets into his pocket.

Daisuke beamed.

"Where are the two of you going now?" She asked.

"Just to the music shop," Hikaru replied and began walking. "Want to come along?"

Akari seemed to be thinking for a while.

"Well, okay."

The three of them sat down under the shades of a gigantic umbrella as they enjoyed their chocolate ice cream. It was apparently, on promotion.

"Where do you two go after school anyway? You don't even attend soccer practices anymore, Hikaru. Tanaka and Oyashima-san are getting worried."

Hikaru snorted.

"You mean they're getting angry that their best player isn't there, right?" He said wryly.

Akari looked taken aback.

"That's rude, Hikaru! Don't say that about your friends."

Hikaru just shrugged.

Daisuke didn't seem to notice the exchange much. He was too busy enjoying his ice cream. Sai seemed to be more interested in what the two salary man in business suits were talking about.

Hikaru licked at his cone.

He got used to going to school these days. While lesson were still a bore as ever, they seemed more understandable than when he had been 12 years old. But he felt a noticeable gap between his classmates and old friends, gradually drifting apart from them. They talked about pokemon and famous soccer players that he couldn't quite remember. His teachers had seemed worried or a while, but when they noticed that his grades had gone up, just assumed that he wanted to put in more effort into his school work.

Sunday came. With a stern warning from their mother to return home in time for dinner, Daisuke and Hikaru went for the food festival.

When they arrived, there was already a crowd. People walked around with various types of snacks on hand. Akari wasn't anywhere to be seen.

Hikaru looked at his watch. She did say 3pm, didn't she?

"Hey, Hikaru and Daisuke! Look! They're playing Go there!"

Hikaru turned.

And in front of him, was Tsutsui. Goodness. He had forgotten that he used to look so geeky.

He grinned. This ought to be good.

"Touya Meijn's Go Tutorial?" Daisuke read out loud. "Hey, isn't it that book with lots of tsumego in it?"

"It's the prize if you can solve the Go problems," Tsutsui said with a smile.

"May I?" Hikaru grinned.

"Sure."

With a glance at the board, Hikaru's eyes sharpened. He picked up a black stone and rolled it between his fingers.

There.

With a 'pachi!' he solved the problem.

"Here's your prize!"

He took the pack of tissue paper with a smile. He gave it to Daisuke, who was munching on a takoyaki.

"Awesome, nii-chan. Just what I needed!" He opened it and used one.

"No problem."

He turned to face Tsutsui again.

"Could you give me the hardest one please? I think my brother would like the book."

The twin brothers both glanced at the excited ghost between them. They knew that it was really Sai who wanted the book.

Tsutsui gave flipped through his book and pushed his spectacles up.

"Here. This is it. But are you quite sure? Maybe Touya Akira could solve it but –"

Before he had the chance to finish saying what he wanted to say, Hikaru placed the stone down.

"It's here. This is where the first hand should be," he said quietly.

There was a stunned silence.

"Heh. Playing Go with little kids know, Tsutsui? Tsk, tsk."

From behind him, an overdressed guy with a shogi fan made his way forward from the crowd that had gathered. He flicked his cigarette, the ashes of which just so happened to land on the goban.

"How's the Go club that you wanted to set up, eh?" He snickered. "You wanted me to join, remember? You can enter the tournament if you have 3 members, right? If you ask me really really nicely… I just might change my mind…"

Hikaru gnashed his teeth. He had forgotten how obnoxious and annoying Kaga had been at the start, with his hatred towards Touya Akira and everything Go-related.

"Forget it," Tsutsi turned away with a look of disgust on his face. "I don't need a player that would drop cigarette ashes on gobans to be in my Go club." He picked up the book.

"Here, boy. That's your prize."

Hikaru neatly side-stepped the hand that came to grab the book. Somehow he had expected that.

Kaga sneered.

"Heh. Touya Meijin's Go Book? You're better off at playing Shouji, boy! Go is a useless game!"

"Hey, don't say that! What have you got again Go?" Daisuke retorted. He had just come back from throwing away his Takoyaki box and heard the last part.

"Even if I told you, I don't think you'll understand either, you little brat. Twins, huh?" He spat.

At this point of time, Hikaru was getting annoyed. Daisuke's face was red from the insult, and Sai seemed rather upset about it all, his fan covering the lower part of his face.

Hikaru had enough.

"If that case, why not play a game of Go with me?" He asked.

He met Kaga's eyes steely.

"Don't tell me what to do, brats. I don't play Go. I play Shougi!"

Hikaru took a step forward. He couldn't let Kaga continue on like this.

He knew what happened to make him like this. He knew the trigger words.

And he used it.

"Are you scared, Kaga-kun?" He asked softly, purposely using an term usually used to address little boys.

"Did you run away from Go to Shougi when you lost to Touya Akira?"

That was it. The widening of eyes. Kaga was enraged.

"You dare!" he shoved Tsutsui out of the way, and pulled him forward. Hikaru let him.

"Let's play go then! If I lose, I'll apologise or whatever you want me to do! If you lose, you're going to swim in the pool!"

"I'll look forward to you kneeling down and apologizing to Tsutsui-san for dirtying his goban, then." Hikaru sat down opposite Kaga.

Kaga leaned forward and glared at him.

Hikaru merely picked up a black stone and rolled it between his fingers.

Clack.

17-4.

Kaga was agitated. He could feel it. In that state, he wouldn't be able to play at his full strength. Even at his full strength, the Kaga of this world, at this time, wouldn't be able to beat him.

He was Shindou Hikaru, holder of the Tengen title and about to get his Gosei title.

And he was about to crush one of his friends to save him.

Clack.

Pachi.

Clack.

The sound of go stones hitting the goban was drowned out by the voices of the crowd around them, chatting and laughing. But to the two players, it was the only sound they could here.

Kaga gritted his teeth and slammed down another go stone.

Hikaru placed down another stone calmly.

Kaga paused.

Hikaru waited.

The moment he placed down another stone, Hikaru was ready and placed his.

He was silently pressing him to play faster and faster.

To make more and more mistakes.

The two of them was in their own world. There was the goban between them, the go stones, and nothing else. The silence was deafening.

Clack.

Pachi.

Hikaru removed the white go stones on the goban.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six…

"I…"

Seven.

"I resign…"

Hikar let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding.

The sounds came rushing back.

"Wow, you were great, nii-chan!" Daisuke jumped up and down in excitement. Sai had tears in his eyes.

"Oohh it's such a beautiful game, Hikaru! It was lovely!"

"Hikaru? Daisuke! There you are! I was looking for the two of you the whole time!"

"Increadible…" Tsutsui whispered.

"Unbelievable... to win against Kaga..."

Hikaru just stood up and moved to where Daisuke was arguing with Akari about the meeting place and Sai was still tearing up about how beautiful the game was.

"Damn it!' Hikaru heard Kaga cursing and the sound of table being pushed aside.

When he turned around, Kaga had stood up. He glared at Hikaru.

"So what? You want me to apologize to Tsutsui?"

Hikaru stared. And blinked. He hadn't actually expected Kaga to honour the terms of the challenge, but he should have, he supposed.

Kaga had always been an honourable sort of person.

"I want you to join Tsutsui's go club and play go again, Kaga," he said.

Without another word, he walked away with Daisuke and Akari, Akari casting curious looks behind.

"Wait! What's your name, brat!" There was a shout.

"Shindou Hikaru!" He shouted back.

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A/N: And that is all.

Review please? My ego needs it or I'll keep feeling that I am writing all _wrong_ and that it deteriorated rather than improved. And if there's any mistake, please tell me too. My usual beta is off busy somewhere so this is unbeta-ed.

Also, cookies and cake to whoever can guess what happened to Akira.


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: Chapter 14, at your service. Looked at the traffic graph today. It makes me kinda nervous to know that over thousands of people are reading this. *coughs in embarrassment*

And also, just in case you don't know, it is a really bad idea to replace all your chapters at midnight 4am. I've forgotten to mention something very important.

Hikari's name has been changed to Daisuke.

I am actually really sorry about that. Must have been confusing for you readers. The main reason why I changed it was because of its similarity to 'Hikaru' and the fact that when they two of them appear together, you get 'Hikaru did this then Hikari did that and Hikari threw a goban at Hikari and Hikaru threw another one at Hikaru…'

Which will eventually get even more confusing. So.

Also, do tell me if you've spotted some unforgivable mistakes (like forgetting to change all 'Hikari' to 'Daisuke' for example. Unfortunately, I currently have no beta (usual one is too busy) so all the mistakes shall have to remain as that. Mistakes. I'll do my best to catch 'em all but no promises.

Disclaimer:

Prince Taite made his way down the staircase slowly.

These days, he'd be having the most terrible dreams. In his dreams, there was a recurring theme. A ghost of his relative would come forth, blood gushing down their faces. And they would whisper…

_Ao Yuki does not own Hikaru no Go._

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**Chapter 14**

Akira had always thought of himself as a logical person. And by logical deductions he could safely conclude the following:

One. He wasn't dead. That was always something that was good to know.

Two. His dad wasn't dead either. That was also something that was good to know, if surprising.

And three. He needed to find Shindou Hikaru. Fast.

The third conclusion wasn't something particularly ground-breaking. Because whenever something even remotely strange happened to him, it always had always something to do with Shindou Hikaru. That was a well established fact in his life.

Especially when things are even stranger than he had first suspected.

"Father," he greeted in surprise.

He was currently at home. The doctor had deemed him fit enough to be discharged after a week of observation, although he was under strict instructions not to over exert himself. He was glad, for once, that he had no interest in anything athletic pursues. His interest lay elsewhere.

"How are you?" His father sat down beside him quietly.

Akira straightened up in his bed.

"I feel fine, father," he replied, in an equally quiet tone.

"But you are not fine, are you?"

He looked at his father in shock. How had…

"You haven't been gone near the goban for a while, Akira."

His eyes strayed to the go board.

It was true.

He had, in his unconsciousness, been avoiding the go board in the middle of his room. He swallowed and looked down.

"It's nothing, father," he said, without giving an explanation.

The goban had been a gift from his father. His mother had not been very happy about, since from what he remembered, he had been five years old. But since then, Go had been a staple of his life. He practically breathed and ate kifu, go stones, and go boards. His father did nothing to encourage or stop him.

"We worry about you," his father said, "you mother thinks that the incident might have caused a more serious concussion than the doctor may have thought. You haven't even been mentioning the Shindou twins since then."

Akira blinked with slightly widened eyes.

Twins? Shindou… twins?

Of course. Shindou Hikaru of this world had a twin, apparently.

Which just gave number three on his conclusion list even more or a priority.

He remembered the confusion when he first woke up. The last thing he remembered, there had been things breaking around him and a horrible pressure of his ears. For a moment, he couldn't quite remember anything. Not what he was doing in a hospital, not how he got to the hospital. Not even his name, or who those people standing around were. The moment passed thankfully quickly, and he managed to orientate himself. But when his mother hugged him, there had been a few seconds when he stared at her face and he almost couldn't recognise her.

The Touya Akiko that he knew no longer bothered to cut or dye her hair black, leaving it to grow grey as it pleased. The lines on her face had grown deeper. She rarely left the house and did not bothered to dress up when she did.

Seeing his mother as she used to be had been… overwhelming. It had been even more surprising to find out that his father was still alive, and that he had regressed backwards for at least about 6 years.

"Father, I am really fine. I have just placed Shindou to the back of my mind for now. I wanted to spend more time with the two of you after the accident," Akira said, looking up with a smile.

It was true. His father was alive when he shouldn't have been, His mother was happy again... Involuntarily, he glanced down at his right hand. He clenched it. His right hand was whole again.

His father looked at him for a moment. He raised a hand and placed it on his head while standing up.

"If you feel any headaches or confusion, tell us." He paused for a moment. Akira couldn't see his expression, with his back facing him. "Your mother and I will always be proud of you, Akira," he said, turning away to go.

His mouth opened, Akira watched his father leave his room, sliding the door closed behind him.

He shook his head. Sometimes, he felt that would never understand his father.

With his right hand clenched, he stood up. He needed to find someone.

0000000000

Spring began without much incident. Setsubun passed with Sai hiding in their room while their father threw beans all over. Unlike previously when Kaga had dragged Hikaru to the school tournament, their Go-related pursues were mostly confined to the internet or amateur players. The private messages had gotten to be annoying, until they found a way to block them in the website settings.

Hence, the internet café and nearby Go salons remained a common stopping point for them after school, even if they didn't offered much of a challenge to either Sai or Hikaru. Hikaru contemplated about going to the insei institute for a while, but eventually decided not to.

It made him nervous to think about it. How would the Go world react to him and Daisuke's presence? It had been bad enough back when he first started playing Go. Now with his current skill level and with Sai through Daisuke, the Go world would most like be in an uproar when they finally appeared, if it wasn't already so from their internet presence.

At that point in time, Waya's face flashed through his mind. He smiled faintly. Waya would no doubt be at the heart of it, discussing about the internet 'Sai' and perhaps even 'Tengen'.

Shaking his head, he pulled himself back to the preset when someone bumped into him.

Akari had taken to follow them around recently (which puzzled Hikaru as she hadn't done that before) and occasionally getting them to accompany her to different places.

This time, they were in a shopping mall, since Akari wanted to look for birthday presents for one of their classmate.

Hikaru continued walking with a heavy heart, Daisuke beside him and Sai behind. Thinking of Waya brought back a sense of lost. His decision still weighed heavy on his mind and his heart. There were times when he that felt like as if there was a stone on his chest that made it difficult for him to breathe.

He glanced at Akari in front of him, and sighed.

He thought he could almost see Akari as she was in the future (or was it the past now?). It didn't happen often, but when it did, he was reminded once again that some billions of people were sort of dead because of him.

He tried to feel guilty about that. But he felt guiltier that he didn't feel as guilty as he should about it. His mother was alive again. He had Sai back. The world still felt the same. The Sun raised and set the same as ever, the sky was still blue, and the last time he checked, the grass was still green. And the same billions of people were walking around him.

Sometimes, it seemed like the only different between his world and this was that he had a brother.

Wasn't it strange?

Things just seemed to like happening around him. He was the one who Sai got attached to. Of all the times the timequake (spacequake?) thing happened, he had to be the one who somehow got sucked into a different world. He had to be the one who got to decide the fate of the world.

It didn't even make sense to him. If Sai was a ghost, and he could see ghosts, shouldn't he be seeing more around? But as far as he could remember, there had only ever been Sai. As for being tossed into a different (but the same?) world, given Tora's tone of voice, it had been annoyed rather than anything, as if it had happened before.

Still. Why him? Someone must be manipulating his life, he thought as he glared suspiciously at passing strangers.

Just as he was starting to brood, someone patted him on the shoulder.

"Look, nii-chan! They're having a sale for Pokemon Yellow now!"

Sai's eyebrows furrowed together and he blinked, but trailed behind Daisuke anyway. Hikaru stopped his train of thoughts to tell Akari that they may want to look at the games store, since Ken-san seemed like the type to like games.

Walking to where Daisuke had dashed off to, Hikaru looked around the multi-storey shopping mall. No one seemed to know that somewhere out there, billions of people had just disappeared. Everyone was hurrying somewhere. There were couples eating ice cream, mothers holding their children's hands, students chatting away. All of them seemed perfectly normal enough.

He gave a sigh again.

But he made the right decision right? His world's Sai had said that it was.

He nodded to himself. There wasn't anything he could do now anyway. He would continue playing Go, and continue along the path that he had already decided on…

One day, he would win Sai and reach the Hand of God.

0000000000

Plastic bags swinging in his hands, Tetsuo Kaga spat out the toothpick on the roadside.

It was never fun to be sent on a grocery run. Even with his sister overseas, the three of them in the family still racked up quite a lot of things to buy. Especially with fruits. His family loved eating fruits.

Still. Watermelons were just so damn heavy. Not that he would ever admit having troubles carrying groceries to anyone.

He tried to call Tsutsui out at first, figuring that he could probably con him into carrying some of the stuff back since they lived near each other. But when he called, Tsutsui wasn't at home. He was in some juku to make sure that he passed his exams. He had enrolled earlier than he wanted to; since he was disappointed that he didn't managed to get the three members needed to enter the school tournaments for Go. Even with him, they only had two members.

Kaga had entertained the thought of getting that Shindou Hikaru guy to enter with them at first. With his strength, they wouldn't have any problems at winning. But something stopped him. Maybe it was because of his freakish demonic strength. Maybe it was because he felt something strange in his Go.

In any case, in the end Tsutsui didn't have enough members to enter the tournament and that was that.

He briefly wondered if the other guy with him (his twin, probably) was as strong as he was?

His thoughts were disrupted when a roar of motorcycles from somewhere behind him increased quickly in volume.

Kaga dodged to the side just in time, just as around seven motorcycles rocketed past him, nearly knocking him down.

Everything happened in a few seconds. One moment, he was walking down a peaceful lane, the next moment he nearly fell over, and the watermelons almost smashed on the concrete ground. His heart thumping in his chest, Kaga cursed after them.

"What the hell! Watch where you're going, you bastards!"

Plastic bags still safely in his hands, Kaga continued walking. The racket that the motorcycles made was unfortunately for him, not fading.

In fact, it was growing louder.

He frowned.

They were turning back. He stopped walking for a moment, and took a step back. The motorcycles came with its engines howling.

Before he quite knew how it happened, he was surrounded.

Oh shit.

"Say that again, won't you?" The person seemed to be the leader took the helmet off, showing a bald head.

A bald head with tattoo of a dragon's head on it.

If he wasn't in the situation he was in right now, Kaga would have sniggered.

"I said to watch where you're going! Your father doesn't own these roads!" His mouth seemed to run on autopilot mode, even as his brain raced to stop it.

"I don't like that way of talking. Nu uh. Not at all," another guy, with his helmet still on, walked forward.

"Shall we show him the right way of talking to your elders," a person in red helmet said softly.

Kaga knew trouble when he saw it. But he was usually quick enough to get away.

Not this time, apparently.

They advanced, pressing him to a darker alleyway.

The sound of flesh hitting flash sounded through the air. A watermelon rolled its way to the main road.

0000000000

Akari ended up going home alone.

She breathed out, and adjusted her school bag on her shoulder. Hikaru and Daisuke had decided to drop by some Go store to get some Go books. Something about recordings and someone name 'Shukaku'? Or Shusaku. There were times when people want to note down the stone patterns on the Go board, apparently.

She didn't quite understood what they wanted to get, but they said that it would take a while, and she _had_ promised her mother that she would return home before dinner. The time on her watch told her that she had around half an hour before said dinner time.

Her footsteps quickened. Her mind was going through all the homework that the teacher had assigned. She better remind Hikaru and Daisuke about them when she got home.

Akari frowned. Or maybe she shouldn't. Sometimes, Akari felt that her life seemed to revolve too much around Hikaru and Daisuke. Sure, they were neighbours and their mothers were friends since kindergarten, but she didn't know why she had to think of them so much. It wasn't as if she didn't have other friends or things to do than to be concerned about them. They could take care of themselves, right? She had accepted that Hikaru had changed. He did seem to be thinking more these days. It was a welcomed change. He wasn't as rude as before or as loud (although still plenty enough), and he…

She smiled faintly to herself. He didn't seem to mind her presence as much too.

For a while, she let her thoughts drift, thinking about the future. Tthere were no other sounds except her footsteps echoing against the asphalt walkway, and the occasional gusts of wind rustling the leaves.

But then she began to hear some strange suspicious noises when she walked pass an alleyway on the other side of the road.

Akari paused for a moment. Her eyebrows furrowed.

There were sounds of something violent hitting against something soft, curses, and to her dawning horror, someone groaning in pain.

Her first instinct was to bolt. She didn't want to meet whoever was down that alleyway. She didn't even want to be near them, if that was possible.

But then she swallowed. Someone needed help. Her help. There wasn't anyone else nearby.

Determined, she looked both ways, and then crossed the road.

The alleyway was just to the right of her now. On the entrance were a few smashed watermelons, a trial of ants surrounding them. She peeked around the corner. The sounds grew louder. From the dim lights cast by the quickly setting Sun, Akari thought she could just about spot a group of people standing in a circle around someone lying on the floor.

Standing near the vending machine to the left of the alleyway, her mind raced.

Should she call the police? Shout for help? Or should she… confront them somehow?

Her mobile phone vibrated at that time.

She picked it up and ended the call. It was her mother. Most likely, she was going to home to a earful of nagging. But she didn't care about that now. She had an idea.

Going into her ringtone folder, Akari squatted down on the floor, and prayed to kami that it would work. She hid herself behind the vending machines, and hoped that they ran the other way.

Heart thumping in her ears, she turned up the volume of her phone, and pressed.

The sound of sirens filled the air.

0000000000

A/N: Keep the reviews coming! I lovehow this is making people confused and partially unhappy but happy, and annoyed but intrigued. That's what keeps an author writing (or maybe that's just me). It's _brilliant_ when someone tells me that they've caught a mistake/plot hole. It's absolutely _fantastic_ when people wag a finger at me and tells me my character development sucks, or that the plot needs more development.

*grins* It's how authors grow. And I want to grow as an author.

So don't worry about me being angry or stuff. I rarely am. Although there are times when the story piss me off when it doesn't come out the way I want it. A story can never satisfy every reader and I'd be disappointed in myself if it did. Don't worry if you haven't found anything to be dissatisfied with either. Just sitting back and enjoying the journey is fine too. I'll try not to confuse too many people and do my best to keep writing a good story. Big changes are coming up.

More disclaimers: I do not own Pokemon.


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